Competent Kids, Caring Communities (CKCC) aims to help schools develop “competent kids” by fostering students’ social and emotional skills, and building a strong family-school partnership.

CKCC includes a comprehensive social and emotional classroom curriculum for grades K-5, with 35 separate sets of lessons for each year that correspond with CASEL’s “Five Core Social-Emotional Competencies”, and align with the Common Core State Standards. The CKCC program revolves around five “Rs”: Reflective Abilities, Regulation of Self, Respect for Others, Relationship Skills and Responsibility-Taking.

A cornerstone of the CKCC program is family engagement, which is viewed as critical to children’s success. The program includes sessions with families that provide information on the social and emotional competencies promoted within the program, and activities for practicing the new skills and concepts at home.

The focus is on developing shared understanding and goals, joint decision making between schools and families, and positive school climate. The family-school collaboration component also includes school-wide social-emotional skill building activities.

Research shows that the Competent Kids, Caring Communities program has positive effects on academic performance and prosocial problem solving, and reduced aggressive behavior. Furthermore, CKCC is recognized by CASEL as a “SELect” program.