Maine Department of Education (DOE) has long been committed to social-emotional learning and with the COVID-19 pandemic, it became even more of a priority, especially for marginalized groups. With the increased focus on supporting students' social and emotional health, the commissioner requested R1CC support for the Maine DOE Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) team in identifying and scaling effective SEL practices. Because the state had already been working on multiple SEL-related initiatives, the R1CC staff prioritized organizing Maine's SEL efforts into a broader theory of change. This project supported Maine DOE in better understanding why the state has had challenges with districts investing in SEL initiatives and developing SEL competencies in both educators and students.