Welcome to
CHARACTER COUNTS!

Character Education Resources for PK–12 Schools

The Six Pillars of Character

What We Do

CHARACTER COUNTS! helps PK–12 schools teach character and values through research‑based curriculum, daily lessons, visual resources, and professional development. Our programs support social‑emotional learning (SEL), PBIS, and positive school culture.

Our flexible PK-12 framework is based on:

the Six Pillars of Character (trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and good citizenship),
our TEAM approach to character education, and
practical, research-based instructional strategies.

How We Can Help

We’ve been working for more than 30 years to create a flexible framework to help PK-12 educators and students develop good character and create positive school cultures.

Using research and educator feedback, we’ve created a pathway of best practices for schools to meet academic, character, social-emotional, and school culture goals.

CHARACTER COUNTS! focuses on building students’ character, social-emotional, and academic skills, while shaping a positive school culture.

Days Until CHARACTER COUNTS! Week

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Impact

Rated 5 out of 5

Success Stories

"What we appreciate the most about CC! framework is the applicability, meaning that we can see the Pillars reflected in everything we do, in and outside of the school. That makes CC! framework friendly and reachable."

Juli Sarmiento

Psychologist

The Columbus School
Colombia

"The most magical part of this program is the ease of implementation by the entire school staff. We are all able to use a simple shared language making the program seamless to use. It is wonderful to have a program where we can positively praise behavior based on a pillar of character, to show how students can lead by example. Since this is such an "easy" program to teach, I believe this is why it's so easy to then implement and use year after year."

Rachel Chunglo

Principal

Albia Judd Elementary School
Prescott, AZ

"The students at West Hertel Academy proudly recite and pledge to be Kids of Character daily and, over the past three years, have internalized those words and now feel a sense of responsibility and commitment to demonstrating the Six Pillars of Character through their words and actions."

LaFreya Wilson

Teacher

West Hertel Academy

Buffalo, NY

Ready to Get Started?

We’re here to help! Contact us today to
begin working on character and culture.

People impacted by our work.

The number of annual CHARACTER COUNTS! Week proclamations by the White House.

The year CHARACTER COUNTS! was created.

We Send Great Emails

Every month we send out highlights of our latest free resources. Join our mailing list so you can have those new resources delivered to your inbox.

Whats New In Our Store

CHARACTER COUNTS! Compass

No matter where your character education journey begins, CHARACTER COUNTS! Compass gives schools the roadmap to plan, the direction to stay on track, and the pathway to lasting impact.

Our new digital platform lets K-12 educators choose from a variety of paced lessons that work best for their students and schedules.

Each resource includes companion Google Slides and can be marked as a favorite or checked off once completed.

Welcome to CHARACTER COUNTS!