Four Sioux Falls schools and four others outside of the area will be helping students improve their social and emotional learning skills thanks to a $1.1 million grant from the South Dakota Department of Education. 

The department awarded Social and Emotional Learning Innovation grants Thursday, according to a press release. 

The grant will assist schools in implementing innovative, evidence-based interventions to foster students’ self-awareness, self-management, relationship, social awareness and responsible decision-making skills, the release states. 

The funding will be used across a three-year period. 

“When educators effectively connect with students and teach to the whole child, kids feel cared for and more engaged in their school communities,” said Mary Stadick Smith, the interim secretary of education. “We want South Dakota students to graduate from South Dakota’s K-12 system ready for college, career and life. These grants are really aimed at that ‘life’ component of our aspiration.”

• Bennett County Middle School: $52,175
• Chamberlain Middle School: $205,500
• Eagle Butte Upper Elementary: $225,000
• Elementary Immersion Center, Sioux Falls: $83,314
• Hawthorne Elementary, Sioux Falls: $165,640
• Hayward Elementary, Sioux Falls: $108,616
• Laura B. Anderson Elementary, Sioux Falls: $183,278
• Martin Grade School: $87,929

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