Social-emotional learning program demonstrated at BI schools

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, March 24, 2026

At the March 12 Bainbridge Island School District board meeting, director of student services Annalisa Sanchez shared a presentation on last year’s efforts to improve the district’s Multi-Tiered System of Support for social and emotional behavior. The program is a catchall term to describe how a school district teaches students about emotional regulation and social connection, through school policies, staff training, intervention plans for students, data collection and district culture.

“We really want to highlight attendance, social-emotional learning, restorative practices, and executive functioning. That’s one of our big goals,” said Sanchez. “And then also, staff well-being is always embedded in what we do, thinking about what our staff actually needs to be able to sustain these systems and implement them, and how are they doing, too.”

BISD is a “lighthouse district” in the field, Sanchez said, per the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, which means its policies stand out in the state as highly effective and innovative.

As part of a statewide effort to reduce instances of student restraint and isolation, BISD has taken up an MTSS curriculum from OSPI and the University of Washington Haring Center that focuses on positive habit-building and connectivity with students, aiming to catch and support a student who is struggling before they start to exhibit more challenging behavior.

x̌alilc Elementary School and Woodward Middle School each are demonstration sites for the program. Staff are trained on best practices for proactive de-escalation, trauma-informed practices, and universal design for learning.

“I’m really grateful that we are a district that acknowledges that student well-being and sense of belonging really can impact a student’s ability to access their learning each day,” said Sanchez.

One particularly effective aspect of the program is the 2025-26 “Show Up, Show Out” campaign, a phrase coined by BISD students, to address chronic absenteeism. Following the school shutdowns of COVID, instances of student chronic absenteeism have almost doubled across the country. On BISD campuses, the issue has more than quadrupled: from 6.2% pre-COVID to 27.4% as of February 2025.

“Show Up, Show Out” encouraged students to “simply show up to class,” and “show out by positively influencing your class and school with your voice and talents,” per a February 2025 district newsletter. The goal was to get 90% of BISD students to attend school 90% of the time.

“Last year, it was more at the community level, and this year it’s more in our buildings. Our building staff are doing a great job of reaching out to students when they’re not at school,” said Sanchez. “We also have a really systematized process to sit down with a family and a student when they are struggling to come to school.”

Sanchez acknowledged that keeping track of student mental health and participation in school is not easy for teachers and staff, given their existing workload, but being able to show up for kids makes a huge difference, she said.

“This is hard work. [Staff] have a lot on their plate to think about, and thinking about the well-being of all those humans in their room takes a lot of energy, and we’re pushing out a lot of different systems. And they’ve just really taken that on and put those in place for kids, and it’s been amazing to see,” Sanchez said.