This document is designed to help guide the process of developing, implementing, and sustaining social and emotional learning (SEL) policies and practices by state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) that want to implement SEL policies and guidelines. Based on their extensive experience supporting state and district teams, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and American Institutes for Research (AIR) designed this tool to support teams as they work through the process of developing policies and guidance. The document identifies steps to complete the process and should be used in combination with more content-driven documents. Included is a flow chart of the process they recommend for writing and implementing SEL policies and guidelines, which may include learning goals or standards for student social and emotional competencies. [For more content-driven documents about the process of articulating learning goals for SEL, see "Systemic Social and Emotional Learning for States. Theory of Action" (ED617366) and "Key Features of High-Quality Policies and Guidelines to Support Social and Emotional Learning: Recommendations and Examples for the Collaborating States Initiative (CSI)" (ED581623).]