SEL Professional Development for Teachers: 12 Options (2026)

By the Transforming Education editorial team. Reviewed for accuracy against the sources listed below.

SEL professional development works when it changes what adults do on Tuesday morning: how they greet students, how they respond to a meltdown, how they talk about their own frustration, how they weave a skill into a math lesson. It fails when it is a slide deck about the five competencies followed by nothing. This guide describes what effective SEL PD looks like, lists twelve real providers and courses with the details we could verify on their own sites, and explains how to choose and how to make the learning stick.

Prices and hours below are those published by the providers as of November 2026. Where a provider quotes by request, we say so.

What good SEL professional development looks like

Five features separate training that changes practice from training that fills a day.

1. It starts with the adults' own skills. Teachers cannot teach emotion regulation they do not practice. Strong programs begin with educators' self-awareness, stress management and relationships with colleagues, which is why CASEL offers a course specifically on SEL for adults and why our SEL for educators toolkit exists.
2. It is tied to a concrete classroom practice. Participants leave with a routine they will run next week: a welcoming ritual, a check-in, an optimistic closure, a repair conversation.
3. It runs over time with follow-up. Multi-week courses with live sessions, coaching or peer circles beat one-day events. Providers below range from six-week institutes to ten-month academies for a reason.
4. It includes leadership. Someone with authority must protect time, model the practices and align discipline and evaluation with them. Several providers require an administrator on the team.
5. It is measured. Participants and leaders agree in advance what will look different and check. Our self-reflection tools offer educator and school-leader versions.

Twelve providers and courses

1. CASEL (multiple courses)

CASEL's professional development catalog is the broadest. The free Introduction to SEL takes under an hour and suits whole-staff onboarding. Belonging and Engagement in the Classroom is a 12-hour self-paced course in seven lessons for teachers, $225 for individuals with group discounts and optional graduate credit through the University of San Diego. Cultivating Social and Emotional Learning for Adults is six self-paced modules of 30 to 60 minutes for $175. Leading Schoolwide SEL is a 12- to 15-hour course for leadership teams at $250 per person. Two-hour facilitated workshops on the 3 Signature Practices and on integrating SEL with academic instruction cost $75 per enrollment. For district leaders, the SEL Fellows Academy is a ten-month virtual program at $6,000 per person.

2. Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence: RULER Institute

The RULER Institute Online is the entry point to Yale's RULER approach. It runs six weeks with up to 2.5 hours of work per week plus a one-hour live webinar or discussion each week (recorded if missed), ends in a certificate of completion, and includes virtual group coaching, an all-staff online resource library, PreK-12 curriculum, family resources and assessments. Teams must include at least three people per school, one administrator and two or more educators or mental health professionals. Registration is $6,000 for three participants and $1,000 for each additional person. In-person institutes at Yale and on-site training are also offered.

3. Harvard Graduate School of Education

HGSE's Professional Education program The Science of Early Learning and Adversity is a two-day, in-person program ($249, 10 clock hours) chaired by Nonie Lesaux and Stephanie Jones, aimed at early education and pre-K leaders and focused on the adult competencies that buffer stress in learning environments. Separately, HGSE's EASEL Lab, led by Jones, offers one-day staff trainings, an eight-part monthly workshop series for small groups of teachers and customized school partnerships, on site or in Cambridge; pricing is by inquiry.

4. Committee for Children: Second Step training

Schools adopting Second Step get role-based training built into the program: three video-based online modules totaling 60 to 90 minutes for the elementary classroom kits; self-guided training with an all-staff kick-off (30-60 minutes), staff training (30 minutes) and lesson-instructor training (60 minutes) for the elementary and middle school digital programs; and three online modules for the Bullying Prevention and Child Protection units. Virtual and in-person professional learning workshops are arranged by consultation.

5. Center for Responsive Schools: Responsive Classroom

Responsive Classroom training is the program; there is no student curriculum to buy. The core pathway is a three-day core course and a three-day advanced course, each with a 21-hour certificate of attendance, taken on consecutive days or spread across a year. A four-day course for middle school educators and one-day introductory workshops (6-hour certificate) are also offered, on site or at advertised institutes. Prices are quoted.

6. University of Colorado Boulder via Coursera

The Teacher and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is a five-course Coursera specialization from the University of Colorado Boulder, beginning with The Teacher's Social and Emotional Learning and ending with an SEL Capstone. Lead instructors are Dan Liston and Randy Testa. Access is through Coursera's subscription (listed at $49 per month), and completing all five courses makes participants eligible for three continuing-education credit hours from CU Boulder for a one-time fee listed at $285.

7. UC Riverside via edX

UC Riverside Extension offers Introduction to Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) on edX, an introductory course for educators on supporting students' self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making and empathy. Check the course page for the current schedule, length and certificate pricing, which were not stated at the time of our review.

8. Washington OSPI: SEL Online Module

Washington's SEL Online Module is seven self-paced courses in Canvas covering an introduction to SEL, embedding SEL schoolwide, adult SEL and professional culture, culturally responsive classroom integration, trauma-informed practice, selecting evidence-based programs and SEL for remote learners. It is open to anyone; Washington educators who register through pdEnroller earn free clock hours. A facilitator guide supports group use.

9. New Jersey Department of Education and Rutgers

NJDOE's SEL page offers two resources. Brick by Brick: A Leader's Guide to Building SEL in Schools is a five-module online course developed with the Rutgers Social-Emotional and Character Development Lab for PreK-12 leaders, limited to staff of New Jersey public, charter and Renaissance schools. SEL Competencies for School, Work, and Life: A Guide for Teachers is six downloadable modules (introduction plus one per competency), each with a facilitation guide, slides and handouts, usable anywhere for PLCs or staff PD.

10. Rutgers Academy for SEL in Schools

The Academy for SEL in Schools, run by Rutgers with the College of Saint Elizabeth, awards a certificate in Instruction in Social Emotional and Character Development. The general track is three sequenced courses (Foundations in SEL Instruction, SEL Pedagogy and Practice, and a 15-week supervised Practicum); an accelerated two-course track serves educators with five or more years of SEL implementation experience. It is offered as a hybrid or fully online sequence. Pricing is on the registration page.

11. Greater Good Science Center, UC Berkeley

GGSC's Summer Institute for Educators ran for seven years and brought educators together to study the science of prosocial development. The center now offers a growing set of live and self-paced virtual programs for educators, including a Greater Good Educators program, through its Greater Good in Education site. Details and cost vary by offering.

12. Harmony professional learning

Harmony at National University pairs its free PreK-6 digital curriculum with professional learning for educators from PreK through grade 12, delivered through its digital platform and Harmony Plus data and training tools. If you are considering Harmony as a curriculum, its training is part of the same ecosystem; see our SEL curriculum guide for how it compares.

How to choose

Match the training to the job. Teachers need classroom practices; leaders need implementation planning; counselors may need Tier 2 skills. CASEL's catalog and the state modules are differentiated by role; a RULER Institute or Responsive Classroom course trains a team around one approach.

Decide whether you are buying an approach or building capacity. Program-specific training (Second Step, Responsive Classroom, RULER, Harmony) only makes sense if you adopt that program. Program-agnostic options (CASEL, Coursera, edX, state modules, Rutgers) build understanding you can apply to any curriculum.

Count total time, not just hours. Six days of Responsive Classroom training means six substitute days per teacher; a six-week RULER institute means protecting 2.5 hours weekly for a team of three. Put the hours on the calendar before you pay.

Start free, then invest. A free introduction for all staff plus a paid deep course for a lead team is a defensible first-year budget for most schools.

Check for coaching and community. Ask what happens after the last session. Coaching calls, communities of practice and leader dashboards are what turn training into practice.

How to make it stick

• Schedule the follow-through before the training. Put three staff meetings on the calendar where the lead team models a practice and colleagues try it.
• Pick one or two practices for everyone. A welcoming ritual and a closing reflection in every classroom build visible culture faster than twenty optional strategies.
• Integrate with academics. Use the SEL integration approach to show teachers how a skill fits inside a lesson they already teach, so SEL does not compete for time.
• Give adults the same support you expect them to give students. Staff circles, check-ins and regulation routines in meetings model the work and address the strain documented in our teacher burnout statistics.
• Observe and reflect. Use the self-reflection tools at the start of the year and again in spring, and look at referral data, attendance and student check-in responses alongside them.
• Make it part of evaluation and hiring. When walkthroughs look for welcoming routines and interview questions ask about relationship-building, the practices survive staff turnover.

For educators who want credentialed depth beyond PD, several online master's in education programs now include coursework in social and emotional development and school climate.