Social and emotional learning (SEL) has become a growing field of research over the past two decades because students need to be psychologically stable and academically strong. While academic success is important, the SEL of students is vital to their performance. The setting for this quantitative descriptive study was a recognized rural Head Start program. We examined the social and emotional beliefs of 33 rural Alabama Head Start teachers. Teachers completed the Brackett Teachers' Brief Social and Emotional Learning Scale for Teachers that contained 12 statements with a Likert-scale response format (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). The quantitative finding with the highest response was: "all teachers should receive training," and the lowest response was: "I would like to attend a workshop to learn how to develop my students' social and emotional skills." The highest SEL competency response among subgroups was: "recognizing and managing emotion," and the lowest response was: "establishing positive relationships." Thus, one implication for directors could be to provide targeted support and leadership encouragement by utilizing teacher teams, promoting collaboration, and being conscious of teachers' social and emotional well-being. While this study was initiated in a small rural population, results support more teacher SEL programs and further research questions such as teachers' beliefs and academic success. [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.]