Resilience-Supportive Schools Illinois (RSSI) is a free and voluntary support that uses school-specific data to connect educators with evidence-informed tools and resources to improve the mental health and well-being of their school communities.
Resilience is imperative for a child's success both in and outside of the classroom helping them adapt to challenges and thrive.
Built off of the Center for Childhood Resilience's REACH Initiative, RSSI understands that schools have unique needs, so their improvement tools should be equally unique.
Start with a 15-question survey. RSSI also pulls in data from sources like the Illinois School Report Card and 5Essentials to create a personalized snapshot of your school's strengths and needs.
Use your snapshot to select one of the four RSSI pillars—Trauma-Responsiveness, Social & Emotional Learning, Mental Health, or Cultural Responsiveness—as your focus area.
Access tools, resources, and assessments (like the CASEL Staff Survey, TRS-IA, SMH-QA, and CARE) through the RSSI website to create an action plan tailored to your school's goals.
A trauma-responsive and healing-centered school creates a sense of safety and support for students, and train educators to recognize and address the potential impact of trauma on learning while promoting an environment that fosters healing and thriving.
A school providing social emotional learning skills in responsible decision-making, self awareness, social problem solving, relationships and respect for others.
School-based mental health supports provide education to promote well-being for all students, and responds to individual students' mental health needs through intervention and connections to community resources.
A school in which every child, family and educator feels their culture is welcome and respected. These schools work to ensure that every student has access to opportunities that allow them to reach their full potential.
Complete the RSSI Screener Survey available in IWAS. To access the survey, click on the "System Listing" link in the left-hand navigation bar, then select RSSI Screener Survey 2025. After you submit your survey, we'll notify you when your data snapshot is ready. Once it's available, you can invite other staff members to RSSI to view the snapshot and assist in developing your action plan.
Check to see if your school has completed a Survey.
Resilience-Supportive Schools Illinois is led by a collective of experts and practitioners, including the Center for Childhood Resilience at Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital, Partnership for Resilience, Stress & Trauma Treatment Center, Illinois State Board of Education and regional SEL Hubs throughout the state.
"RSSI uses information from several different sources to help you make data-informed decisions to determine which pillar to focus on."
"RSSI uses visuals to show our school's strengths and opportunities with a helpful summary to align our school's efforts toward targeted improvement."
"RSSI is a very comprehensive platform.. This platform isn't telling me what to do for school improvement plans, but it's giving me somewhere to streamline conversations and allowing collaboration to occur within that."
All schools in Illinois can visit the Learning & Resource Hub to access additional resources and comprehensive learning courses to improve school communities.
Visit the Learning and Resource HubWhether you're ready to dive in or just exploring, we're here to support you. Contact us to learn more about how RSSI can make a difference in your school.