The social and environmental pressures on our kids are immense, and they affect the quality of the classroom environment. Capturing Kids’ Hearts is a national initiative and immersive experience that models and teaches social skills like a handshake or greeting someone by name. At the highest level, it’s designed to increase appropriate behavior in the classroom, decrease bullying, strengthen student connectedness and lower suicide rates.

The Flippen Group, which created this national initiative 25 years ago, says many students—and their teachers—come to school each day wearing invisible backbacks filled with stress, unreasonable expectations and overwhelming responsibilities. These things weigh heavily. Capturing Kids’ Hearts transforms the school culture so kids want to be in classrooms and teachers know how to connect with them and make them feel valued.

Schools across the country that have implemented Capturing Kids’ Hearts processes report:

• Fewer negative behaviors and decline in isolation, violence, early sexuality and substance use.
• Significant improvement in student academic performance
• Districtwide improvements in test scores
• Higher rate of job satisfaction among teachers
• Increased teacher retention and improvement in teacher recruiting