Harrisonburg City Schools reports SEL rollout, says more than 80% of students report supportive relationships

Harrisonburg City Schools’ director of student services told the board the division is in year two of implementing the Second Step social-emotional learning curriculum K–12 and is using the Panorama Student Success survey to measure competencies and guide interventions.

Director Chloe said teachers monitor lesson completion through MTSS teams and that the platform now offers tier-2 and tier-3 intervention lessons to support students who do not show competency growth in certain SEL areas. "We are fortunate in Harrisonburg City to have robust student support teams," Chloe said.

The fall Panorama survey found that "more than 80% of our students in every building are sharing that they have at least 2 of 3 of those key relationships," Chloe reported, and staff said that result meets or exceeds national benchmarks in elementary schools. Staff also noted they compare teacher perceptions with student self-assessments to identify gaps.

Board members asked about preschool inclusion and parent access to data. Chloe said preschool uses conscious-discipline approaches within MTSS and that Second Step has a preschool program piloted in summer work but not implemented division-wide. On parent access, she said data points can be shared in meetings and appear on report cards for targeted cases, but the division is not currently generating separate automatic reports to families.

Chloe closed by highlighting November as Youth Homeless Awareness Month and reminding the board of supports for McKinney‑Vento students.

Next steps: staff will continue to refine data use, increase teacher buy-in, and explore expanded family reporting practices.