Press Releases

Committee for Children Expands Flagship Second Step® Elementary Program with New Digital Offering


Fully Web-Based Curriculum for Grades K–5 is Intuitively Designed for Modern Classrooms


SEATTLE, March 16, 2021,
at 5:00 a.m. PST – With student well-being declining after a year of school closures, the need for connection and social-emotional recovery is critical, especially for our nation’s youngest learners. Committee for Children, a global nonprofit and leading provider of research-based social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula, today announced a new addition to its program portfolio. The just-released Second Step® Elementary digital program is the organization’s first fully web-based offering for Grades K–5 and is based on its long-standing and award-winning Second Step® Elementary print-based classroom kits.

“Student and teacher needs are evolving, so education partners and curricula must evolve to meet those needs,” says Committee for Children CEO Andrea Lovanhill. “With our new web-based elementary program, educators now have the choice of a digital option designed for e-learning or our long-standing, evidence-based print curriculum. This allows educators greater choice in providing relevant, research-based SEL programming for every classroom and school community.”

The Second Step Elementary digital program is teacher-facilitated and intuitively designed with:

  • On-demand training and supports for educators, including easy online access to all lesson materials to simplify preparation, teaching and progress tracking
  • Interactive media to promote student engagement and adapt to students’ needs by helping them connect with the content, each other and the teacher as they build new social-emotional skills
  • Culturally relevant pedagogy that engages every learner with authentic content and provides opportunities for culturally relevant teaching that can be continuously improved based on feedback and new research over time

“We’re really excited about the release of the Second Step Elementary digital program,” says Vice President of Product Polly Stansell. “The curriculum was developed from the ground up with three goals in mind: to make sure it’s research-based and pedagogically sound, to create content that’s engaging for students and educators, and for technology to make the program easy to implement and simple for us to update and improve.”

The new Second Step Elementary digital program offers a multimodal learning experience that includes integrated audio, video, and interactive components with varying activities to help engage students with fresh, age-appropriate content both in-person and remotely. The new web-based format allows for consistency from classroom to classroom and is easily scalable across schools and districts.

The comprehensive Second Step Elementary digital program aligns with all five social-emotional competence areas as defined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL): self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making.

Visit secondstep.org/elementary to learn more about the Second Step Elementary digital program and Second Step Elementary classroom kits.

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About Committee for Children
Committee for Children is on a mission to ensure children everywhere can thrive socially, emotionally, and academically. Best known for our innovative Second Step family of social-emotional learning programs that blend research and rigor with intuitive design, we empower children and adults with skills that help them realize their goals in the classroom and throughout their lives. Since 1979, we’ve been connecting experts in the field to share experiences and advance the cause of educating the whole child. We also help pass policies and legislation that place importance on creating safe and supportive learning environments. By lifting up children today, we’re helping them create a safe and positive society for the future. Visit cfchildren.org to learn more.

About Second Step® Programs
Second Step programs are research-based, teacher-informed and classroom-tested, and promote the social-emotional development, safety and well-being of children from Early Learning through Grade 8. The Second Step programs’ holistic approach supports creating a positive school climate, which may help schools and communities address teachers’ and students’ stress, anxiety and trauma. Second Step programs have earned accolades from the White House, the U.S. Department of Education, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), and other institutions. Today our programs reach more than 16.5 million children annually and are used in 34 percent of U.S. elementary schools. Visit SecondStep.org to learn more.

Media Contact
Jordana Ehling
Public Relations Manager
jehling@cfchildren.org | 206-438-6378