Trauma-Responsive • Evidence-Based • Practitioner-Led
Regulated adults. Stable schools. Defensible compliance.
SEL Academy helps special education leaders stabilize staff, reduce discipline disproportionality, and reclaim their time — starting with the nervous systems of the adults in the building.
45%
Reduction in suspensions documented in the founder’s district practice
30% → 12%
Chronic truancy reduced through systemic, regulation-first intervention
111 trained
Professionals trained under a state-funded grant with a 48% composite skills gain, pre/post measured
20+ years
Inside K-12 systems as a nationally certified school psychologist
Your directors are drowning. Your staff is leaving. Your compliance risk is compounding.
Special education systems are facing a staffing crisis, a documentation burden that consumes leadership bandwidth, and persistent disproportionality for Indigenous students, students of color, and neurodiverse learners. Curriculum alone hasn’t fixed it — because no program works inside a dysregulated system. SEL Academy starts where the research points: the nervous system comes before the content. Regulate the adults, and the students follow.
How We Work
DOES-C Framework
A shared neurochemical language — dopamine, oxytocin, endorphins, serotonin, cortisol — that gives staff and leaders a practical, science-grounded way to understand and respond to behavior instead of reacting to it.
Mashkawiziiwin
Ojibwe for “inner strength.” A culturally grounded framework that centers relational wisdom alongside neuroscience — and aligns with American Indian Education funding streams.
AI-Augmented Leadership Support
Practical tools that give directors hours back every week — IEP prep compression, de-escalation scripting, and trauma-informed family communication — with humans always making the decisions.
Ways to Work With Us
Start Free
Director Survival Kit — a free 2-hour workshop that gives special education directors 3 hours per week back within 14 days. Upgrade to the AI Starter Pack ($1,000) for the full toolset.
Build Momentum
Director Cohort ($3,500/seat, 60 days, invitation-only) and district PD workshops ($2,500 half-day / $4,500 full-day per site) — trauma-responsive, compliance-framed professional learning that survives tight budgets.
Transform the System
Annual partnerships from The Spark ($2,500/building/year) to The System ($7,500/building/year) to The Transformation — full on-site training, coaching, and cultural framework integration (from $25,000/year).
How districts pay: IDEA Part B • Title II-A • State American Indian Education aid — SEL Academy LLC is a registered federal (SAM.gov) and Minnesota SWIFT vendor.
Led by a Practitioner Who Has Lived the Work
Tascha Just, Ed.S., NCSP is a nationally certified school psychologist with more than 20 years inside K-12 systems, President of the Minnesota School Psychologists Association (2026–27), and Chair of the Minnesota Children’s Justice Act Task Force. She founded SEL Academy to build the tools schools actually need: neuroscience-informed, culturally grounded, and defensible in a due process hearing.