The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides an opportunity for states and local education agencies (LEAs) to rethink the goals and policies that they have in place for public education. Under the new law, education leaders have greater flexibility to define student success and to design their own systems and programs to ensure educational equity. This paradigm shift allows policymakers to develop comprehensive strategies that take into account all aspects of children's learning and development, including social-emotional skills, that are instrumental for success in school and in life. Children's social and emotional development has often been called the "missing piece" of America's education system. Yet a large body of research shows that social and emotional learning (SEL) approaches--such as those that teach self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making--are associated with students' long-term academic and career success. This paper suggests five ways that policymakers can integrate SEL approaches into their efforts and identifies strategies that have been proposed in several Consolidated State Plans: (1) Articulate a well-rounded vision of student success; (2) Provide professional development to improve educator SEL capacity; (3) Identify evidence-based SEL interventions as a school improvement strategy; (4) Leverage Title IV grants to implement SEL strategies; and (5) Make data related to SEL transparent to the public. [The research and writing were supported in part by a grant from Pure Edge, Inc.]