Northern California is not the Bay Area. It's not Los Angeles. It's a vast, diverse region — agricultural valleys, mountain communities, mid-sized cities, and small rural towns — where schools face a distinct set of challenges and operate with a distinct set of resources.

The education policy conversations that dominate California tend to be shaped by the needs of large urban districts. But the schools of Northern California — from Butte County to Shasta County, from the Sacramento Valley to the Sierra Nevada foothills — have their own story. And increasingly, that story includes a serious investment in social-emotional learning.

SEL Academy is a Northern California organization. We were built to serve this region, and we understand it in ways that consultants from San Francisco or Los Angeles simply don't.

The Northern California SEL Landscape

Social-emotional learning has been growing in California schools for over a decade, accelerated by the state's adoption of the CASEL framework as a guiding model and by the post-pandemic recognition that student mental health and wellbeing are foundational to academic success.

In Northern California specifically, several factors have made SEL investment particularly urgent:

Post-disaster trauma. The Camp Fire, the Carr Fire, the Dixie Fire — Northern California has experienced some of the most destructive wildfires in California history. The communities affected by these disasters — Butte County, Shasta County, Plumas County — are still recovering. Students in these communities carry trauma that shows up in classrooms every day.

Rural resource gaps. Northern California is home to dozens of small rural districts that operate without the counseling staff, social workers, and support specialists that larger urban districts take for granted. In these schools, classroom teachers are often the primary — and sometimes the only — social-emotional support available to students.

Agricultural community stressors. The Sacramento Valley and surrounding areas are home to large agricultural communities where families face economic pressures — seasonal work, labor uncertainty, immigration stress — that affect student wellbeing and school readiness.

Geographic isolation. Access to high-quality professional development is limited in Northern California. The major education conferences are in Sacramento, San Francisco, or Los Angeles. For a teacher in Gridley or Red Bluff or Weaverville, getting to quality training means a long drive and a night away from home.

SEL Academy addresses all of these realities directly.

Districts in Our Northern California Service Area

For an overview of our work across the region, see Social-Emotional Learning in Northern California.

SEL Academy serves school districts throughout Northern California. Districts in our service area include:

Butte County

• Chico Unified School District
• Oroville Union High School District
• Oroville City Elementary School District
• Durham Unified School District
• Gridley Unified School District
• Paradise Unified School District
• Biggs Unified School District
• Thermalito Union Elementary School District

Shasta County

• Shasta Union High School District
• Gateway Unified School District
• Redding Elementary School District

SEL programs for Shasta County & Redding schools →

Tehama County

• Red Bluff Union Elementary School District
• Red Bluff Joint Union High School District
• Corning Union Elementary School District

SEL programs for Tehama County & Red Bluff schools →

Yuba and Sutter Counties

• Yuba City Unified School District
• Marysville Joint Unified School District
• Wheatland Elementary School District

SEL programs for Yuba City & Marysville schools →

Nevada County

• Nevada Joint Union High School District
• Grass Valley Elementary School District
• Nevada City School District

Yolo County

• Woodland Joint Unified School District
• Davis Joint Unified School District
• Winters Joint Unified School District

Napa County

• Napa Valley Unified School District
• St. Helena Unified School District

This is not an exhaustive list. If your district is in Northern California and you're interested in SEL professional development, we want to hear from you.

What SEL Academy Offers Northern California Schools

Professional Development for Educators

Our core offering is professional development for classroom teachers and instructional staff. We design training that is:

Practical, not theoretical. Every strategy we teach is something a teacher can use the next day. We don't spend three hours on research before getting to application.

Non-clinical. SEL Academy's approach is explicitly non-clinical. We train educators, not therapists. Our programs don't require a clinical background and don't position teachers as mental health providers. They position teachers as the powerful relationship-builders and skill-teachers they already are.

Grounded in CASEL. The CASEL framework is the gold standard in SEL. Our training is built on it — but we translate it into language and strategies that make sense for Northern California classrooms.

Adapted to your context. A professional development day for a small rural K–8 in Tehama County looks different from a training for a large comprehensive high school in Chico. We adapt our approach to fit your school's size, culture, and current level of SEL implementation.

Keynote Speaking

SEL Academy co-founders Antone Curtis and Nigel Solece are available for district-wide professional development days, administrator retreats, school board presentations, and community education events throughout Northern California. Their keynotes are engaging, research-grounded, and built for educators who are tired of being talked at by people who've never taught a class.

PBIS Consulting

For districts looking to implement or strengthen Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, SEL Academy provides consulting support that connects PBIS structures to SEL skill-building. We help Northern California schools build tiered systems that are both behaviorally rigorous and emotionally supportive.

Free Digital Tools

SEL Academy offers a growing library of free digital tools available to any Northern California educator:

• CASEL Framework Explorer — an interactive guide to the five core competencies
• Daily Emotion Check-In — a simple tool for building student self-awareness
• Educator Wellness Check-In — because teacher wellbeing is the foundation of student wellbeing
• SEL Self-Assessment — help your school identify where you are and where you want to go
• Lesson Plan Library — SEL-integrated activities for every grade level
• Family Resource Hub — tools for engaging families in SEL at home
• Progress Tracker — monitor your school's SEL implementation over time

The Research Case for SEL in Northern California Schools

The evidence for SEL investment is robust and consistent. A landmark meta-analysis of 213 school-based SEL programs found that students in SEL programs showed:

• An 11-percentile-point gain in academic achievement
• A 25% improvement in social and emotional skills
• A 10% decrease in conduct problems
• A 9% decrease in emotional distress

For Northern California schools working to close achievement gaps, reduce chronic absenteeism, and improve school climate after years of disruption, these outcomes represent a compelling return on investment.

Why Northern California Needs a Northern California SEL Provider

There are national SEL organizations with large staffs and polished curricula. There are Bay Area consultants who will fly up for a day and charge accordingly. There are online programs that promise to deliver SEL without any human support.

SEL Academy is different. We're from here. We understand what it means to serve students in communities that are still recovering from wildfires. We understand the resource constraints of small rural districts. We understand the culture of Northern California — the directness, the practicality, the deep community roots.

When we work with a school in Gridley or Oroville or Red Bluff, we're not applying a template designed for a school in Oakland. We're bringing our knowledge of this region, these communities, and these students to bear on the specific challenges your school is facing.

Let's Build Something Together

SEL Academy's tagline is "We build together." That's not marketing language — it's a description of how we work. We don't come to Northern California schools with a finished product and a sales pitch. We come as partners, ready to listen, learn, and build something that actually works for your students and your community.

If you're a superintendent, principal, curriculum coordinator, or teacher leader in Northern California, we'd love to start a conversation. Reach out to plan a session for your people.