Session: Implementation Matters: Examining Determinants, Processes, Outcomes, and Strategies to Advance School-Based Social and Emotional Learning Programs across Multilevel Systems and Diverse Contexts (Society for Social Work and Research 31st Annual Conference)

School-based social and emotional learning (SEL) has a strong evidence base for improving students’ social-emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes (Cipriano et al., 2023; Corcoran et al., 2018); however, positive effects are not produced by programs alone. They also depend on the quality of implementation, capacities of adults to deliver SEL, and system conditions that support the uptake, adaptation, and sustainability of SEL programs in complex environments (Durlak et al., 2011; Durlak & DuPre, 2008). Implementation science focuses attention on implementation determinants and outcomes (Damschroder et al., 2022; Proctor et al., 2011). More recent advances in SEL emphasize the need for systemic and equity-centered approaches that align policy, partnerships, adult learning, and school routines (Jagers et al., 2019; Mahoney et al., 2021). Yet research on SEL implementation remains limited and fragmented across settings, levels of analysis, and global contexts.

This symposium addresses that gap by bringing together experts to present five papers that examine how SEL is implemented, supported, and strengthened in real-world school settings. These papers focus on statewide implementation levers and seasonal change in California; a Michigan statewide assessment of SEL implementation supports; teachers’ social-emotional competence as a predictor of SEL implementation and student social-emotional growth in Hong Kong; multilevel facilitators and barriers to SEL implementation in rural Chinese schools; and a scoping review of equity-focused SEL implementation strategies in U.S. K-12 systems. The innovation of this symposium lie in several key areas:

1) Multilevel implementation analysis: Across the five papers, SEL is examined at state, district, school, classroom, and teacher levels. Together, the papers show how infrastructure, organizational climate, partnerships, adult capacities, and day-to-day delivery of SEL programs interact to shape implementation quality and sustainability.

2) Breadth of implementation outcomes, research designs, and methods: The symposium includes longitudinal mixed-effects analysis, statewide needs assessment, multilevel mediation, CFIR-guided implementation analysis, and scoping review methods. Across these designs, the papers address both implementation processes and outcomes, including readiness, supports, acceptability, appropriateness, feasibility, fidelity, sustainability, and student level social-emotional growth.

3) Evidence from diverse contexts: The research contexts are diverse and include settings across the U.S. (California, Michigan), Hong Kong, and rural China. This breadth creates an opportunity to compare SEL implementation mechanisms and supports across educational systems, including large-scale public initiatives, routine school delivery, and under-resourced rural settings.

4) Equity-centered contributions to implementation science and SEL: The symposium extends beyond questions of whether SEL works to whether it is implemented equitably across diverse schools and systems. In line with equity-focused implementation science (Baumann & Cabassa, 2020; Brownson et al., 2021), the papers collectively foreground reach, contextual fit, implementation burden, and sustainability as equity-relevant concerns.

This symposium is designed for social work researchers, implementation scientists, school social workers and educational leaders seeking practical guidance for strengthening SEL in schools. By integrating evidence on infrastructure, adult competence, organizational conditions, implementation outcomes, and equity-focused strategies, the symposium offers a research-informed agenda necessary to build the conditions under which SEL can be implemented well, sustained over time, and expanded more equitably across diverse school systems.