From the report: "In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and its state and nonprofit partners developed a plan for recovery and reconnection ISBE led a team that gathered input from more than 300 educators, students, and administrators across the state to develop a Learning Renewal Resource Guide (Illinois P-20 Council, 2021) The purpose of the guide was to support local education agencies in identifying programming and approaches for educators and students to recover academically, socially, and emotionally from the pandemic In 2021, leveraging federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, ISBE adopted a multicomponent approach to addressing learning and recovery from the pandemic, with the largest investment allocated for social and emotional learning (SEL) approaches ($121 million) Their rationale for this investment was that learning recovery will be more effective for students if social-emotional well-being is addressed first

In 2022, the American Institutes for Research® (AIR®) entered into a 3-year partnership with ISBE to generate evidence for the effects of its statewide investments in SEL on preK–12 students and school staff Focused on a set of activities referred to as “learning renewal – social and emotional learning” (LR-SEL), AIR has committed to studying the implementation, outcomes, and costs of three core program areas: (a) SEL Hub activities, broadly defined as SEL-related professional development (PD) and supports offered through the hubs; (b) Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing (REACH), a trauma-responsive, school-based education approach; and (c) Community Partnership Grants intended to promote student, staff, and family well-being by connecting community-based organizations and mental health providers to schools These three components of LR-SEL are described below."