Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS) will receive a $4,000 grant from AASA, The School Superintendents Association, to enhance professional development and strengthen its social and emotional learning (SEL) program.

"Social and emotional learning is a crucial component of our Compass to 2025 Strategic Plan and provides a pathway for our students to be successful, especially as they begin to navigate a post-pandemic world," said Superintendent Aaron Spence, Ed.D. "This generous support will enable us to scale up efforts to reach more of our young learners, benefiting them and all families and educators within the Commonwealth as we share this important work we're engaged in."

VBCPS is one of six divisions nationwide to participate in the SEL Impact Project, an initiative to enable school districts to realize the benefits of SEL and provide a more supportive and effective return to in-person learning. Acceptance into the project requires a commitment on the part of the participating districts to make SEL a strategic priority and to utilize the resources provided by the project to further its SEL planning and implementation. The other school systems receiving grants are: Bullhead City Elementary School District in Arizona; Collier County Public Schools in Florida; Marshalltown Community School District in Iowa; Moriarty-Edgewood School District in New Mexico; and Naperville Community Unit School District 203 in Illinois.

"The school districts we've chosen realize how critical SEL programming will be for students emerging from the relative isolation of the pandemic and returning to the typical social interactions at school," said Daniel A. Domenech, AASA's executive director. "We feel these grants will serve as a catalyst for recipients to take bold initiatives that will yield new areas of exemplary practices that others can learn from."

As participants in the SEL Impact Project, VBCPS will also receive:

• ongoing personalized support from AASA in the development and implementation of SEL plans.
• complimentary registration for AASA's Social & Emotional Learning 2021-22 Cohort. Cohort participants will receive professional development support, toolkits, networking with colleagues and other resources.
• collaborative support from other participating districts.
• a culminating case study document that VBCPS can use to highlight and further its unique SEL efforts.

For more about the AASA and the SEL Impact Project, please visit AASA.org.

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Department of Communications and Community Engagement, [email protected]

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