District presentation finds social‑emotional learning scores lag while staff and parents report generally positive support

Southern York County School District officials told the board that fall 2024 results from the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) climate survey show stronger ratings for adult support than for social‑emotional learning, and that parent response rates remain low.

Dr. Repper and Dr. Hughes, who presented the results at the board’s meeting, said the district administered the PDE climate survey in October 2024 to students in grades 4–12, staff and parents and that the district has comparable data going back to February 2018. The presenters said the district will repeat the PDE survey in May to produce a fall‑to‑spring comparison.

The presentation emphasized three PDE survey domains: social‑emotional learning (SEL), student support and safe/respectful climate. Dr. Repper said the elementary student averages in the fall were an overall 3.09 (on a 1–4 Likert scale), SEL 3.32, student support 3.07 and safe climate 2.89. He told the board that PDE’s threshold for “area of agreement” is 3.4 and that a score near 2.5 is considered a contradiction for the district’s purposes.

Dr. Hughes summarized middle‑ and…