In order to meet the needs of the whole child, the Illinois State Board of Education developed social-emotional learning standards, which must be implemented in all schools. These standards are designed to explicitly teach the skills students need to develop self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness, responsible decision making, and positive relationships with adults and peers. The social emotional learning standards prepare students to engage within the learning environment, to increase overall academic gains. Research has found students who have received explicit instruction in the SEL competencies, have seen an average increase of 11 percentile points on standardized assessments when compared to students who did not receive the additional instruction (Durlak et al., 2001).