The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and the Center for Childhood Resilience at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago announced the statewide rollout of Resilience-Supportive Schools Illinois (RSSI) — a free, data-informed initiative that provides schools with tools to strengthen student and educator mental health and resilience. RSSI builds on the Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing (REACH) Initiative, which has led to reduced chronic absenteeism, improved teacher retention, and decreased the use of suspensions, and improved schools’ capacity for trauma-responsiveness for participating schools.  This coordinated approach includes universal mental health screenings, Social-Emotional Learning Hubs that support trauma-informed practices, the BEACON portal to connect families with services, the Resiliency Toolkit for educators and caregivers, and the Children’s Adversity Index to quantify community-level trauma risks.  RSSI is a free and voluntary initiative. Schools start by completing a 15-minute survey in ISBE’s Web Application Security (IWAS) system. Schools will have access to a suite of virtual tools and personalized, regionalized supports provided by Illinois’ Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Hubs and RSSI partners to help them develop and implement a resilience action plan focused on one or more of RSSI’s four foundational pillars: 

• Mental health: Schools receive support to promote well-being for all students and respond to individual mental health needs through intervention and connections to community-based care. 

• SEL: SEL instruction equips students with critical life skills, including responsible decision-making, respect for others, conflict resolution, and empathy. 

• Cultural awareness, responsiveness and equity: RSSI schools work to ensure every child, family and educator feels their culture is welcome and respected, providing an environment for students to reach their full potential.