The purpose of this qualitative case study is to explore the effects of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs on school safety in grades PreK-8 in the Northeast Region of the United States. As districts, schools and policymakers continue to dive deeper into supporting students' emotional and social needs, SEL programs are being implemented in schools to navigate through the process of creating a more equitable emotional and psychological safe environment for virtually all students. In this study, the CASEL theoretical/conceptual framework is used to explore how the SEL competencies influence the school setting. Four guiding questions are used to explore system leaders' perception of SEL program implementation and students' adaptability to the SEL program as they interact with peer. During the study, data was collected via semi-structured interviews of 16 participants comprised of school leaders, assistant principals, teachers, deans, guidance counselors and psychologists. Findings of this study revealed that school leaders highly value SEL in schools to foster an environment of emotional and psychological safety. Furthermore, the findings show that continuous SEL program implementation is beneficial to the learning and teaching environment. Moreover, there is a need to strengthen structures for collecting and monitoring students as they are engaging in SEL practices. The structures put in to place to collect and monitor SEL data needs to be revisited to capture the extent of incidents in schools. Finally, the findings revealed students exercising self-regulation and advocating for themselves that students engage in SEL practices. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]