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Facilitation Guide

About the Guide

The Facilitator's Guide to the Educator Shortages in Special Education: Toolkit for Developing Local Strategies is designed to lead state teams through a collaborative process to develop a comprehensive approach for addressing special education teacher shortages. This guide helps teams identify and implement a combination of short- and long-term educator talent management strategies to create comprehensive shortage solutions that address local context and needs.

Aligned with current efforts from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs, this process intentionally examines shortages across the entire career continuum-from attracting to preparing to retaining teachers-so that all students with disabilities have access to effective teachers.

Who Should Use the Guide

The Facilitator's Guide is written for the leaders and facilitators of state teams charged with developing a comprehensive approach for addressing local special education teacher shortages. State teams should promote shared ownership, collective action, and joint accountability across the following partners:

State education agency (SEA) personnel responsible for statewide educator talent management systems, data and monitoring systems, and educator preparation and accountability systems

Regional education agency personnel responsible for building capacity across districts and regions within states

Local education agency (LEA) or district personnel responsible for attracting, developing, and retaining effective special education teachers, including instructional leaders and human resources personnel

Educator preparation program (EPP) personnel, including both traditional and alternative routes, responsible for preparing new special education teachers

How to Use the Guide

The Facilitator's Guide leads teams through a multi-stage process to consider both short and long-term strategies that contribute to a comprehensive approach to addressing special education teacher shortages. Each stage is anchored by an essential question and big ideas to help teams frame their thinking about special education teacher shortages.

Each stage is further divided into suggested action steps accompanied by recommended tools and resources and reflection questions for state teams. The recommended tools and resources provide state team leads and facilitators with in-depth facilitation guidance, implementation resources, and continuous improvement tools to help state teams carry out the suggested action steps.

Teams may need additional support from an experienced technical assistance facilitator to carry out the activities in this guide. States interested in support around this guide should contact the CEEDAR Center.

Primer

Policy Brief: Preparing and Retaining Effective Special Education Teachers: Short-Term Strategies for Long-Term Solutions

This brief for policymakers, preparation providers, and state and district administrators offers a high-level overview of evidence-based short-term strategies that complement longer-term, systemic solutions to special education teacher shortages. It includes an overview of research, talking points, and recommendations.

Brief: Short-Term Strategies for Dealing with Shortages of Special Education Teachers

Schools and districts facing teacher shortages often have few options for filling vacant special education teacher positions. This brief outlines short-term strategies that, when paired with long-term comprehensive strategies, can be employed to hire, prepare, and support teachers in schools and districts facing special education teacher shortage crises.

Teacher Shortage Solutions Toolkit from Learning Policy Institute

A one-stop shop for research, talking points, strategies, interactive maps, and costing tools for exploring and addressing ongoing teacher shortages in the U.S., the Toolkit also includes a specialized section on special education teacher shortages. This section, developed with the GTL Center and CEEDAR Center, is a great starting point for developing a full understanding of special education teacher shortages.

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This page gives an overview of our Shortage Toolkit with downloadable materials.

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Page 1: Teacher Retention and Turnover

Over the last three decades, schools have seen a shortage of qualified special education teachers. A high turnover rate among special education teachers, which has remained relatively stable at around 25% over the past 20 years, contributes to this shortage. For our purposes here, teacher turnover will be used to describe:

Attrition: Teachers leave the field of education for non-education work (e.g., change careers, stay home with children, retire from profession)

Transfers: Teachers transfer from special education to general education positions

Migration: Teachers move to another special education position

Did You Know?

Some districts may have relatively low levels of turnover, while neighboring districts have high levels. High-poverty school districts bear the brunt of the special education teacher shortage. They face higher proportions of unqualified teachers and higher turnover rates than is the case among wealthier districts.

Administrators have struggled to find qualified special education teachers to fill open positions. Consequently, thousands of positions have been filled by special education teachers with minimal qualifications. Although many agree that some teacher turnover can be healthy, high levels can interfere with school stability. High turnover can mean that:

Fewer faculty have a significant understanding of the students, families, and community

Investments in professional development are lost

Collaborative relationships among general and special educators must be rebuilt

Reasons for Teacher Turnover

In order to increase teacher retention, it is helpful for school leaders to understand the reasons that special educators leave their positions. In fact, there are a number of reasons, and these include:

Experience: Teachers are most at-risk of leaving during their first years in the classroom. Some estimates suggest that up to 50% of new teachers leave the profession in the first several years.

Retirement: Given the large number of baby-boomers moving toward retirement, a large proportion of teachers will leave the workforce over the next decade. In addition, many teachers might choose to retire early because of work-related experiences.

Work-related Experiences: Work stress and dissatisfaction are major contributors to teacher turnover. Some commonly cited examples are:

Lack of support from administrators and colleagues

Large caseloads

Non-teaching responsibilities (e.g., excessive paperwork)

Student behavior

Accountability requirements

Lack of opportunity to teach students

Salary and benefits (although teachers will sometimes choose better working conditions over higher compensation)

Bonnie Billingsley reiterates some of the reasons special education teachers experience work-related stress (time: 1:14).

Transcript: Bonnie Billingsley EdD

We know that there are several things that create a lot of stress for special educators. One of them is role overload, unrealistic non-teaching demands. A lot of special educators complain about excessive paper work, too many meetings. They often complain that these non-teaching demands really interferes with their teaching responsibilities, and of course teachers want to help kids. That's why they went into this to begin with, so when they're forced to spend time doing things that they see as peripheral, unimportant, or redundant then they get discouraged and they feel like they can't do their jobs well. There's also caseload issues. Some teachers just have so many kids on their caseload that they feel that they can't serve them well. Or they have such a diverse caseload; for example, being asked to teach children with four or five disabilities in a lot of different classrooms can also create role stress. Then if you add to that a lack of support from administration, another reason teachers tell us they leave, that really leaves the teacher feeling like where can I go to get help?

Research Shows

Data indicate that the most common reasons special education teachers leave the profession are to escape teaching, to address personal issues, and to retire.
(Boe et al., 2008)

Methods for Tracking and Understanding Teacher Turnover

Rates and patterns of teacher turnover may be viewed from national, state, district, school, or program perspectives. Understanding these data can inform school leaders and policymakers about the best strategies for improving teacher retention and reducing turnover rates. School leaders need to make an effort to track the percentage of special education teachers leaving their positions and discover why they have chosen to do so. Three methods they can use to do this are outlined in the table below.

Monitoring turnover rates over time

Identify the patterns of leaving in the school or district and compare these patterns with others in the same geographic area.

Are teachers leaving one district at a higher rate than in nearby districts?

Is this because of salary discrepancies or another factor?

Conducting confidential exit surveys or interviews

Look for work-related patterns across teachers and use that information for strategic planning related to increasing teacher retention.

Do teachers report feeling isolated?

Do they report feeling unsupported by school leaders?

Asking current teachers to indicate how long they plan to stay

Conduct brief, confidential interviews with teachers and ask about their experiences and plans for the future.

How long do you plan to remain in your current position?

What are things about your job that make you want to stay?

What factors might impact your decision to leave?

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IRIS | Page 1: Teacher Retention and Turnover

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Over the last three decades, schools have seen a shortage of qualified special education teachers. A high turnover rate among special education teachers, which has remained relatively stable at around 25% over the past 20 years, contributes to this shortage.

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Comprehensive retention strategies must be implemented to address existing shortages of special education teachers and SISP.

Role of Policymakers in Supporting Comprehensive Retention Strategies

Policymakers can offer a key role in ensuring that students have access to services by supporting efforts to improve the retention of special education teachers and SISP by:

Alerting constituents and others of retention strategies and their importance.

Introducing legislation and supporting regulatory efforts to address and fund these initiatives.

Strategies for Policymakers

Authorize use of and provide maximum funding for programs (e.g. E-Rate) that help expand the technology capacity of districts for increased use of appropriate teleconferencing and telehealth services to:

Allow equitable access for families in rural and impoverished areas

Reduce travel time between schools for SISP to provide services efficiently

Improve access to needed professionals for homebound students as well as for locations without qualified SISP

Encourage states to adopt mentorship and induction programs for at least the first 3 years of professional service in licensure/credentialing requirements.

Provide financial incentives accessible to districts for the hiring and retention of highly effective teachers and SISP to remain in positions over time (e.g., stipends for Master Teachers or Nationally Certified professionals).

Provide grant funding for districts to develop professional learning communities and other types of peer coaching and mentoring experiences to help professionals feel supported and connected and able to respond to the challenges and stress of school environments.

Promote interagency and intergovernmental collaboration between schools, community agencies, hospitals, and universities to enable comprehensive delivery of services and supports for student.

Promote specific caseload, workload and/or ratio targets consistent with national recommendations for best practices.

Advocate for loan forgiveness for service in professions in high demand, in hard-to-staff schools, and in public service settings.

Encourage policies that support flexible hiring processes for special education teachers and SISP.

Considerations for States and Districts

Encourage and develop mentorship/induction programs that value interprofessional education (e.g., professional learning communities, weekly team meetings, brown bag lunches, etc.). Provide access to supervision offered by professionals with related training and expertise.

Promote national models of practice. Align job descriptions and evaluation systems with national practice models.

Provide secretarial support for the provision of compliance related paper work activities (e.g., setting up and documenting meetings, sending notices, obtaining consent, etc.).

Provide professional development opportunities tailored to the specific disciplines to improve relevance of content and encourage professional networking.

Provide financial incentives for highly effective teachers and SISP to remain in positions over time.

Create and sustain systems that prioritize interprofessional practice that increase collaboration and teaming for effective service delivery, job satisfaction, and reduced professional isolation.

Provide recognition (e.g., service awards, merit-based pay, peer appreciation, etc.) opportunities.

Provide advancement opportunities (e.g., senior teacher, assistant director, coordinator of services, team leader, department chair, etc.).

Allow for flexible and part-time working experiences (e.g., job-sharing).

Provide Employee Assistance Programs to help professionals who encounter personal and professional challenges to be able to cope and adjust.

Conduct annual workplace condition assessments to determine if the practitioner has adequate supplies, work setting, and related supports for successful performance of job duties.

Encourage policies that support flexible hiring processes for special education teachers and SISP.

Telehealth services can be a valuable resource to enhance and improve access to needed services, but should not supplant direct services provided by school-employed specialized instructional support personnel. Telehealth considerations:

Use of appropriate, secure, and reliable teleconferencing, teleassessment, and other telehealth services can improve access to consultation and collaboration between educators and with families, improve response times for needed triage services during crisis events, and limit loss of service time spent traveling to and from schools for individual meetings that do not require face to face participation.

Ensure that hardware and software is fully accessible to persons with disabilities, in conformity with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and Section 255 of the Communications Act.

Use of telehealth to address physical or mental/emotional health can improve health education, health promotion, student engagement and attendance.

Provide opportunities for practitioners to engage in telework and teleconferencing in order to reduce time spent traveling between buildings for team meetings and other duties that could be managed more quickly and efficiently with a virtual meeting experience.

Provide opportunities for parents to engage in consultation and collaboration with teachers and other specialized instructional support personnel and to attend meetings virtually (with parent consent) to improve parent engagement and participation in their child's education. This option could be helpful for families who have difficulty making in person meetings due to difficulty obtaining child care or time off from work.

Benefits of Implementing Comprehensive Retention Efforts

Comprehensive intentional efforts to retain highly qualified personnel help ensure that there is consistent access to high-quality services and supports for students, their families, and teachers.

By focusing on the use of retention strategies, districts are able to limit employee attrition, remedy personnel shortages, and increase job satisfaction.

Retention strategies help employees build stronger working relationships and improved professional skills and self-efficacy, and ultimately experience a more rewarding work experience that promotes greater loyalty in employment settings.

Comprehensive retention efforts demonstrate to staff that they are a valued member of the school community.

More Information on Retention

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Comprehensive retention strategies must be implemented to address existing shortages of special education teachers and SISP. Role of Policymakers in Supporting Comprehensive Retention Strategies Policymakers can offer a key role in ensuring that students have access to services by supporting efforts to improve the retention of special education teachers and SISP by: Alerting constituents and others [...]

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Hiring the right people to join your team is one of the toughest challenges business owners may face. Not only do you want to find someone who believes in your mission, but you also need someone who fits into your company culture and has the necessary skills to succeed.

There are many considerations business leaders should take into account when hiring someone new, including previous success rates, enthusiasm and clarity on the role. To ensure you're bringing on the right team members, follow these seven steps outlined by Young Entrepreneur Council business leaders.

Members pictured from left to right.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.

1. Be Clear About Expectations And Values

The first step on the list for hiring the right person is to be really clear on the expectations of the role and the values of the person you want to hire. When you're clear on the outcome of the role, you can think about the attributes, experience and mindset of the person you want in the role. After that, you'll want to make sure that the person you hire lines up with the values that you and the organization have. Even if someone has the skills, if their values aren't aligned, then you run the risk of a bad hire. Values plus skills equals success in hiring! - Ryann Dowdy, Be in the Room

2. Create A Hypothetical Organization Chart

You should evaluate where there are gaps in your company, and whether or not you can afford to hire for these gaps right away, by creating a hypothetical organization chart. Many small businesses won't be able to hire individual people to fill each role from day one. But if you clearly understand what tasks and responsibilities you're trying to hire for, you can at least design a "future organizational chart" that you can fill in with new hires over time. With an "ideal world" organization chart, you can also estimate how much it will cost to hire this dream team. This also helps you prioritize which hires you need to focus on first. For example, you might find that hiring a marketer or salesperson first can recoup costs faster, and then you might hire other roles next. - Nathalie Lussier, AccessAlly

3. Ask Personalized Interview Questions

Find out more about the candidates you're interested in hiring. Ask them questions about their past experience, their goals for the future and what they're looking for in a company. The next step is to make sure that your company can provide them with what they want. Once you've done this, ask them to fill out an online application and ask for references. - Kristin Kimberly Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC

4. Consider How The Candidate Fits Into The Company Culture

My first step in hiring the right person for the team is determining what I'm looking for in a candidate for the company culture. This is important because it helps me to form a clear job description and identify the specific skill sets and qualities essential for the role. Also, it's the crucial cog in the wheel which moves the next part of qualifying candidates. Once I know what I am looking for, the next step will be to develop a scoring system that measures candidates against these criteria. This can be done by ranking each criterion on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the highest score, then assigning points to each rating. For example, if communication is rated as nine out of 10, then the candidate would receive nine points for those skills. - Tonika Bruce, Lead Nicely, Inc.

5. Define The Team's Overall Mission And Goals

Though often overlooked, defining the team's overall mission and goals is an important step. Take time to clearly articulate what your team is trying to accomplish and why. Then, identify the specific needs and gaps in your team by assessing your team's current strengths and weaknesses. Find the areas where you need additional support or expertise in order to be successful in working toward the bigger picture. This will 1. help you identify the specific skills and qualities that the person you hire will need in order to be successful in their role and support the team's overall objectives, and 2. allow you to communicate this effectively to candidates during the hiring process, which can help to attract the right people and ensure that they are motivated and engaged in their work. - Lauren Marsicano, Marsicano + Leyva PLLC

6. Know What You're Looking For

One step to hiring the right people for your team is knowing what you are looking for. You should have a clear understanding of the skills and characteristics that make a potential candidate an ideal fit for your team. So, start by creating a list of capabilities that you seek in a potential candidate. These requirements can change based on the role you're recruiting for. You might want to create multiple profiles based on the available vacancies. Doing this would make it easier for you to find and onboard someone who has the right skills and is an ideal fit for your company's culture. - Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms

7. Identify The Top Four Duties Of The Role

Identify the top four things this person is responsible for and the metrics or KPIs they need to meet for those responsibilities. Employees are happy at a job when they have autonomy, they get paid fairly, they like the people they work with or for and there is room for growth either personally or professionally in the workplace. For autonomy, and so they aren't micromanaged, the employee needs to know what their top four responsibilities are and what will measure their success. It's easy to pull employees in different directions because entrepreneurs are often visionaries and have new ideas that can distract an employee from their duties. Having a clear expectation makes it easier for an employee to stay on track if asked to do more than what they were hired or paid for. - Givelle Lamano, Lamano Law Office

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these seven steps to ensure you hire the right people for your team

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Council Post: Follow These Seven Steps To Ensure You Hire The Right People For Your Team

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Not only do you want to find someone who believes in your mission, but you also need someone who fits into your company culture and has the necessary skills to succeed.

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I am sure many can relate to hiring the wrong person and how painful it is after you realize it. I too have done my fair share of making hiring decisions that have turned out poorly. That one decision can lead to months and months of negative impact on your company.

In a recent WorkItDaily article, author Daryl Hancock insists that critical to a company's success is not to hire someone until the right candidate is found. He emphasizes " Never waiver off this rule: Decide NOT to settle." Yes, you need people, but you need the right people, those who are going to be an asset to your organization.

Hiring the right people takes a commitment not to allow outside influences to cloud your judgment or pressure your hiring decisions. And one of the keys is deciding ahead of time the type of candidate that will benefit your business and what that looks like. With a combination of pre-planning and a shift in focus, you can make hiring a more goal-oriented process to increase the odds that new hires will make the impact you desire on your business and other employees.

Here are some hiring practices that have helped me not to settle and will help you hire the right people.
Quality Over Quota
A major area to focus on when hiring the right people for the job is the quality of the candidate. The goal here is to find long-term employees who will add value to your organization over the lifetime of their employment.

With an emphasis on workplace diversity and its many common misconceptions and misinterpretations, hiring for quality can present challenges for business leaders, as there is pressure to create a diverse workplace.

According to a Harvard Business Review article, " Diversity should be understood as the varied perspectives and approaches to work that members of different identity groups bring...They bring different, important, and competitively relevant knowledge and perspectives about how to actually do work-how to design processes, reach goals, frame tasks, create effective teams, and communicate ideas, and lead."

Any organization wanting to enrich its ability to remain competitive and grow needs to consider the quality of diverse perspectives and approaches as a skill necessary to an organization's overall health and processes. What this means is that you want to hire people based on their ability not just to perform the functions of the position adequately, but you want people who bring new ways of thinking, new ways of thought.
Diversity of Thought
While it is true that every company must decide on its own preferred qualities in employees, favoring diversity of thought as a quality in new candidates can help your organization to gain new perspectives, approaches, and points of view for problem-solving, innovation, and processes. Tackling these types of issues with new ways of thinking fosters growth and retention.

Consider this, " Capturing the true benefits of a diverse workforce means not just hiring someone for their background, but also their experience, ability, and perspective." To realize the benefits of diversity of thought, you need to begin to implement ways of assessing a candidate's approach to the things that are important to your organization.

Incorporate assessments and include a set of pre-hire questions for prospective candidates to address. What is most important is to seek out and utilize tools that are available to help you and your company evaluate a candidate's quality of diversity of thought before the interview.
Cultural Fit
Remember, you are not settling. You are looking to hire the right people, not the best people, and it is important not to forget the aspect of your corporate culture and what makes a potential hire a good fit. This is where you really need to assess key indicators for long-term success in your company.

This starts with you. What defining elements best describe the culture that makes your employees thrive? And not only as individuals but also as a collaborative unit that elevates your business every day.

Before assessing cultural fit, understand your own company's culture. What makes everything work and why. Is your company fast paced? Is it the team dynamic that everyone collectively thrives working well under pressure?

For me, a culture of accountability is the key to boosting engagement, performance, and growth. The right people are accountable, they take responsibility for both their performance and business outcomes. Instead of playing the "blame game" when something goes wrong. They step up and take full ownership. This is critical because nothing stifles growth and impedes progress more than a culture of blame and lack of ownership.

Once your company's culture is defined, you can then begin to incorporate evaluating for cultural fit in pre-hiring questionnaires and begin to assess and evaluate for cultural fit. Have new hires describe what type of environment they thrive in-does it match your company?
Reining in Your Unconscious Bias
It is one thing to assess a candidate on paper, it is quite another to evaluate a potential candidate in person. We may have biases to overcome, especially during interviews.

There are two types of bias. We may have an unconscious or implicit bias wherein we react in ways that perpetuate stereotypes. There is also affinity bias wherein we tend to surround ourselves with others who look, behave, and believe as we do.

These biases include, but are not limited to, race, socioeconomic status, gender, age, and sexual orientation. You must purposefully and proactively rein in unconscious biases.

One way to actively address unconscious bias is to standardize interviews. In a standard interview, each candidate is asked the same questions in the same order. The questions should be focused on the values and qualities for which you are looking-questions that help to assess the candidates' capability for diversity of thought.

With a clear objective, you can now go into each interview prepared to assess the best quality candidate that also brings a diverse perspective to your organization.
Conclusion
Hiring the right people is about focusing on hiring quality people that will benefit your business and its future growth. A quality candidate is one who can not only perform the job more than adequately but also brings a diversity of thought that can make substantial and significant contributions to your organization.

Think differently about your hiring processes, strategies, and goals. Spend more time up-front and have a mindset of not settling.

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I am sure many can relate to hiring the wrong person and how painful it is after you realize it. I too have done my fair share of making hiring decisions that have turned out poorly.

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What are the main reasons for teacher burnout? Today, you'll get the top teacher burnout statistics and understand why teachers burn out and quit.

However, before we dive into the data, let's unpack what burnout is and why it's affecting teachers today more than ever.

Want to learn more? Read on!

What is teacher burnout?

According to the National Education Association, teacher burnout can be defined as "a condition in which an educator has exhausted the personal and professional resources necessary to do the job."

While burnout is a common phenomenon in all professions, teachers tend to see higher levels of burnout. In fact, one survey by Rand shows that teachers are more than twice as likely to be stressed as other working adults.

And according to a study from the American Educational Research Association, teachers in the U.S. are 40% more likely to experience symptoms of anxiety in comparison with healthcare workers, 20% more likely than office workers, and 30% more likely than workers in other professions like farming and military.

Some of the warning signs of teacher burnout are (depending on the level of burnout):

Change in appetite

Weight gain or loss

Anxiety or depression

Fatigue

Sleep disorders

Irregular hair loss

Lack of job satisfaction

Inability to enjoy downtime

If not taken care of, these burnout symptoms can lead to chronic depression and serious physical health problems.

Burnout in teachers is not only impacting their lives, but also their students who are missing adequate attention and guidance. Students under teachers with high anxiety tend to perform worse academically, particularly in subjects like math, and can develop negative feelings and behaviors.

Now that you know what teacher burnout looks like, what causes it? A multitude of factors.

What are the most common causes for teacher burnout?

There are plenty of reasons for teacher burnout. Teachers report:

Heavy workloads

A poor education landscape of Individual Education Program (IEP) plans

Staff shortages

Social media issues

Safety issues

Low salaries

Mental health

A deficit of education funds

And more

Teachers are also exposed to continuous criticism because of modern-day parenting. These criticisms often come from teachers having different teaching styles that aren't respected by parents.

Lastly, the COVID-19 pandemic has enhanced the overall stress within teaching professions. Many schools opted for a hybrid model which included both online teaching and face-to-face classroom time. Teachers were not prepared for this change and had to undergo quick upskilling to use technology effectively personally and for their students.

During that time period, many teachers resigned from their jobs leading to ample staff shortages and a lack of resources to plan students' curriculum.

Why is teacher burnout on the rise in 2023?

As teachers quit their jobs, more and more positions go unfulfilled. Teachers who have stayed in their jobs are forced to compensate for the missing educators and non-teaching staff.

At the same time, their workload isn't shrinking and salaries aren't increasing. No wonder burnout is rising and a growing number of teachers are planning on quitting.

With that, let's dive into more teacher burnout statistics.

The top teacher burnout statistics of 2023

K-12 teachers are the #1 most burnt-out profession in The United States

44% of teachers in K-12 school report often or always feeling burnout

90% of teachers claim that feeling burnt out is a serious problem

Over half of teachers say they will leave teaching sooner than originally planned

There are 500,000+ fewer educators in the American public school systems post-pandemic

44% of public schools posted teaching vacancies in early 2022

43% of educator job postings are going unfilled

30% of teachers were found to be chronically absent

Compensation isthe #1 reason educators plan to quit their jobs

What is the rate of teacher burnout?

1. Almost half of K-12 teachers feel burned out at work "very often"

(Gallup)

In the 2022 Gallup Poll on occupational burnout, 44% of American K-12 teachers reported feeling burned out often or always. In the case of teachers at universities and colleges, the figure stood at 35%. This figure may be lower since K-12 teachers must deal with student-parent dynamics while college students are independent.

2. 67% of educators considered burnout to be a "very serious" issue in 2022

(National Education Association)

A survey of 3,621 members of the National Education Association (NEA) revealed that 67% of these leading educators consider burnout to be a "very serious" issue. Meanwhile, 90% of the respondents think it to be a "somewhat serious issue" faced by educators. This survey attributed unfilled vacancies as one of the major reasons for increased stress on the teachers and other staff.

3. 37% of senior leaders in education experience signs of burnout, the highest among all categories in education staff

(Teacher Wellbeing Index 2022)

A 2022 research study conducted on a group of teachers in the United Kingdom showed that senior leaders (headteachers, principals, deputy and assistant headteachers and principals, and head and deputy heads of year and departments) showed the highest number of signs of burnout, exhaustion, and acute stress. This affected 37% of senior leaders compared to 27% of school teachers. When it comes to the signs of exhaustion, an astounding 41% of senior leaders reported this compared to 30% of school teachers.

4. Over 1/5 of school and teaching support staff also experience burnout

(Teacher Wellbeing Index 2022)

Burnout isn't just affecting teachers, but school support staff too. This same UK-based poll found that 21% of school support staff experienced burnout and another 15% reported exhaustion.

5. Approximately 60% of teachers experience job-related stress frequently or always

(Education Week)

According to a survey by EdWeek Research Center conducted in July 2021, about six in every 10 teachers experience job-related stress either always or frequently. This survey revealed that this job-related stress had effects on their sleep cycle, ability to enjoy time with family and friends, and physical health. As a result, 41% reported that their efficiency at work goes down when they get stressed. Only 9% of the teachers surveyed report not or rarely feeling any stress.

What is the teacher quit rate because of burnout?

6. More than 300,000 public school teachers and other education-related staff left their jobs between February 2020 and May 2022

(The Wall Street Journal)

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, around 300,000 public school teachers and other related staff left the education field from February 2020-May 2022. This large exodus was approximately 3% of that workforce.

7. 55% of teachers reported plans to leave the education field sooner than planned

(The Wall Street Journal)

In a 2022 poll by the National Education Association, 55% of teachers responded that they plan to quit their current education roles earlier than they originally intended. Just one year earlier in August 2021, only 37% of teachers reported this same feeling.

8. 44% of public schools posted teaching vacancies in early 2022

(The Wall Street Journal)

At the beginning of 2022, data from the National Center for Education Statistics found that 44% of public schools posted full or part-time teaching vacancies due to unforeseen resignations and forceful reliability on non-teaching staff. That means nearly half of all American public schools were actively seeking new teachers, and meanwhile, were short-staffed.

9. More than 61% of school administrators have found it difficult to hire personnel

(McKinsey)

School administrators are having a hard time filling their open positions, including roles for teachers, substitutes, counselors, administrators, and mental health professionals. This is set to worsen as fewer college students (one-third since 2008) enter and complete teacher education and preparation programs.

10. There are 500,000+ fewer educators in the American public school systems post-pandemic

(National Education Association)

According to data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022, there were 567,000 fewer educators in public schools than there were before the pandemic. According to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), the national ratio of hires to job openings in the education field has declined to 0.57 in 2022.

11. Approximately 86% of NEA members have seen more educators leaving the field since the COVID-19 pandemic

(National Education Association)

A whopping 86% of members within the National Education Association report seeing more educators leave the industry since the start of the pandemic. These leaves are either due to career changes or early retirement. For comparison, in 1992, just 5% of teachers left the profession. By 2005 and onward, the turnover rate had rested around 8% until the unforeseen pandemic.

12. The #1 reason why teachers leave education is compensation

(McKinsey)

48% of educators are planning on leaving the field due to compensation, while 42% have already left because of the same reason. Expectations are the second most common reason - 33% plan on leaving while 31% have left due to this reason. Well-being is third (31%/23%), leadership fourth (30%/31%), and workplace flexibility fifth (26%/21%).

At the same time, 58% stay because of meaningful work, 39% because of their coworkers, 34% because of compensation, 28% because of geography, and 27% because of community.

13. Almost 30% of teachers were found to be chronically absent

(SEF, Southern Education Foundation)

Almost one in three teachers, a reported 29%, were chronically absent in 2021. "Chronically absent" is defined as missing more than 10 school days during the academic school year. Teacher absence negatively affects students' test scores, school budgeting, and results in the additional expense of hiring substitute teachers.

To tackle this issue, several districts in the Southern United States have started to offer monetary incentives to increase teacher attendance and bring down the need for substitutes.

Why is teacher burnout so high?

14. Three-fourths of educators had to take up additional work due to staff shortages

(National Education Association)

It's no surprise that schools are short-staffed and have fewer teachers than required. Around 74% of teachers said they had to take up extra duties to cover the staff shortages. Meanwhile, 80% of teachers reported that they had to do more work than their expected roles and responsibilities due to unfilled job vacancies.

15. Over 80% of schools report that student behavior has worsened significantly in recent years

(National Center for Education Statistics)

The NCES published a study in 2022 that helped explain the teacher burnout statistics of 2023. First being that either in 10 schools think student behavior has gotten worse in recent years. There is an increase in classroom disruptions from student misconduct (56%) rowdiness outside the classroom (49%) and acts of disrespect toward teaching staff (48%).

16. There have been over 400 school shooting incidents in the last 2 years

(Center for Homeland Defense and Security)

Since 2018, there have been over 750 shooting incidents in American schools. There were 250 shooting incidents in 2021 and 156 in 2022. For obvious reasons, the fears associated with the safety and security of schools are a huge reason for teacher burnout, forcing many to explore new fields or occupations.

17. More than 75% of teachers have reported having stress-related health issues

(Not Waiting for Superman)

A survey revealed that more than three in every four teachers have experienced health problems arising from the failure to handle stress. Approximately 38% of the respondents experienced regular headaches or stomach aches, while another 17% experienced heart palpitations or chest pain. Another quarter, 25%, experienced shortness of breath and dizziness.

18. One-third of teachers felt unsafe because of implementation problems with COVID-19 rules

(Research.com)

More than 65% of teachers had a positive outlook during the pandemic thinking COVID-19 testing and vaccinations would make schools safer, but it didn't turn out that way. More than ⅓ reported feeling unsafe because of the lack of rule-following. There were not many serious legal consequences for breaking COVID-related rules at schools like not wearing masks or social distancing.

19. 85% of teachers report that their jobs are "unsustainable"

(Not Waiting for Superman)

To put it simply, teachers can't keep up with what schools and students are demanding of them. A survey said 85% of teachers define their work as "unsustainable" and claimed it significantly increased risks to their health as a result. 43% of these teachers sleep less than 6 hours per night, and 31% use their weekends to catch up on classroom work.

What is the burnout gap between teachers and other professions?

20. Teachers in K-12 grades are the #1 most burnt-out profession in the U.S.

(Gallup)

A poll revealed that compared to all other occupations in the U.S. workforce, K-12 teachers are the most burned out. A reported 52% of all of these teachers reported this feeling. That's more than half! Why? Factors including low wages in comparison to other sectors and everchanging national and state-level policies have made teaching particularly difficult.

21. The burnout rate of K-12 teachers is 14% higher than in other industries

(Gallup)

Gallup conducted a survey of 12,319 U.S. full-time employees, including 1,263 K-12 teachers to study workplace stress and burnout. In 2020, 36% of K-12 teachers reported that they very often or always feel burned out at work compared to 28% of other industries' workers. This gap increased to 14% in 2022 to 44% and 30%, respectively.

22. About 28% of educators experience symptoms of depression, almost double other professions

(Forbes)

More than a quarter, 28%, of teachers in a survey reported that they have experienced symptoms related to depression. This figure compares to just 17% of the workforce in non-teaching occupations. Additionally, roughly one-quarter, 24%, of teachers have expressed the inability to cope with job stress compared to just 12% of workers in other professions.

Teacher burnout statistics based on demographics, gender, and age

23. Over 1 in 2 female teachers feel burnout due to higher stress levels

(Gallup)

Female teachers experience higher burnout, emotional exhaustion, and neuroticism levels than their male counterparts. More than half of all female teachers, 55%, report being more prone to burnout compared to male teachers, at 44%. Men were found to have higher scores in quality of life than women in several domains including psychological, physical health, and social relationships.

24. Data shows Black and Hispanic educators are 5.5% more likely to quit education occupation earlier than they planned

(National Education Association)

According to a poll by the National Education Association, Black (62%) and Hispanic/Latino (59%) teachers plan to leave the teaching profession earlier than they planned to resign. They are already underrepresented in the teaching profession and their increased exodus will only widen that race gap. Now, only 1 in 5 principals and teachers in US public schools are educators of color.

25. Younger teachers and teachers who work in lower-income districts and/or with pre-K or high school students are more likely to leave

(McKinsey)

38% of younger teachers (ages 25-35) say they plan to leave compared to 30% of older teachers. Similarly, there are socio-economic differences - 40% of teachers in districts where most students receive FRL (free or reduced-price lunches) say they plan to leave compared to 25% of teachers in districts where fewer than one in four of all students receive FRL.

And while 37% of educators who work with pre-K or high school students are planning on leaving, 28% of teachers working in elementary or middle schools say the same.

26. The longer teachers have taught, the more likely they are to consider quitting

(National Education Association)

At the same time, another survey shows that half of teachers with 10 or fewer years of experience plan to leave, while 58% of educators with 11-20 years of experience have these same thoughts. 57% of teachers with 21 years or more of experience say they are likely to quit earlier than planned.

What are schools doing to minimize teacher burnout?

Now that you know how real teacher burnout is, you may be thinking: What are we doing to help teachers and minimize this?

Some schools are taking action by focusing on mental health programs and services to help teachers cope with stress. Members of NEA strongly support the thought of raising teachers' salaries, offering additional mental health support for students and teachers, hiring additional teachers and support staff to fill the existing vacancies and reduction of paperwork. However, many may find these efforts to be too little, too late.

To fix this problem in the future, schools must target the root causes of burnout. For example, staff shortage issues could be resolved through an employee-friendly environment, sufficient funding from authorities, and higher incentivized employment programs.

Ultimately, many teachers decide to leave teaching for good and find alternative careers for former teachers. A few of their career options include instructional design, curriculum development, and educational consulting.

Conclusion

There you have it! Those are the most important teacher burnout statistics. Ultimately, teachers are experiencing a high level of stress and pressure, which makes many of them leave the field for good.
Learn more: Top Online Learning Statistics Sources: National Education Association National Education Association (2) Teacher Wellbeing Index Southern Education Foundation Education Week Wall Street Journal National Center for Education Statistics Research.com Center for Homeland Defense and Security NotWaitingForSuperman
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Teacher Burnout Statistics: Why Teachers Quit in 2023 | Devlin Peck

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What are the top teacher burnout statistics? Here is a collection of data and facts on why teachers feel burnt out and are leaving their teaching profession. Read on!

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A survey of U.S. public sector workers released in October found that K-12 public school educators were the most likely to report higher levels of anxiety, stress and burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic. That's obviously no surprise. After a quick and difficult transition to full-time virtual learning, to the unrelenting pressure to return to school before the approval of the vaccines, to being targets in heated, potentially dangerous political battles, educators have endured staggering levels of anxiety and pressure.

Districts are also reporting shortages of classroom teachers, cafeteria workers, bus drivers and substitute teachers, exacerbating an already tense environment for educators who-for now at least-choose to remain in their profession. Nearly four in 10 reported that working during the pandemic has made them consider changing jobs, mirroring recent surveys from the National Education Association and the RAND Corporation that found high percentages of teachers thinking about exiting the profession

However, compared to other public sector workers, K-12 employees were more likely to say they prefer to stay in their jobs.

Educators like Charity Turpeau, the 2021-22 middle school teacher of the year in her Louisiana school district, love being in the classroom, but are worried about the mounting pressures of the job and the lower pay. "With the workload, demands from the state, pandemic restrictions, and lack of pay, I feel as if I am doing less of what I love, which is teaching," she told Good Morning America hosts on Nov. 8. "The paycheck does not match the amount of workload we are given and the overtime we work to try and complete it all."

If the education system is to avoid the fast approaching "teacher turnover cliff," says Doris Santoro, professor of education at Bowdoin College in Maine, districts and school leaders have to focus on structural change in schools beyond doing what is necessary to fill shortages.

"These are opportunities for school leaders to really look at what we are asking teachers to do. Let's eliminate the part so the job that are not as important. Give them the choices in the kinds of work they do. There is incredible power in giving educators work that they find meaningful and important."

Turpeau says burnout among educators is more prevalent now than at any time in her 16 years of teaching.

Demoralization is equally prevalent. "Burnout and demoralization are meaningfully different forms of work dissatisfaction that each affect teachers' ability to do their jobs and influence decisions to remain in the profession, Santoro says.

Burnout is often a more temporary condition in which an educator has exhausted the personal and professional resources necessary to to the job. Demoralization occurs when an educator believes she is unable to perform the work in ways that uphold the high standards of the profession.

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Getting Serious About Teacher Burnout | NEA

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To avoid a "Great Resignation," districts need to make substantive changes to reduce stress and improve morale in schools. Educators don't need any more chair massages or Casual Fridays, says one expert. "This is about support and autonomy."

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Mary T. Brownell, Lynn Holdheide, Margaret L. Kamman, Erica D. McCray

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Aditi is a first-year, eighth-grade social studies teacher. She’s looking forward to honing her practice, but she’s one of several new teachers hired just a couple of weeks before classes started. Perhaps not surprisingly, student achievement at this middle school has been far below the district and state averages for many years. Just in her first-period class, more than 50 percent of her 30 students are performing below proficient on the state assessments in reading and social studies, and seven of her students have documented disabilities. In her four other periods, achievement is similar, class sizes range from 26 to 32, and the numbers of students with disabilities range from five to seven.

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Recently, I asked my sixth-grade son to complete this sentence: School is a place where I ______.

Without hesitation, Matthew responded, "School is a place where I go to learn and have fun." Matthew is my 12-year-old son who happens to have Down Syndrome. His journey has been shaped by the dedicated educators and instructional support personnel who have held high expectations for his success and growth, and I see their efforts echoed in Matthew's perspective about school.

The impact an educator can have on a child is profound, which makes statistics about personnel shortages in education, particularly special education, alarming:

Current Shortages: 40% of public schools hiring for open teaching positions in special education in 2020-21 reported having difficulties filling the opening, compared with 17% in 2011-12, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Report on the Condition of Education 2023.

Pipeline Challenges: Between 2013-2020, there has been a 30% decrease in the number of individuals completing traditional teacher preparations programs, according to the NCES, Report on the Condition of Education 2023.

Educator Diversity: Only 1 in 5 teachers are people of color, compared to more than half of K-12 public school students who are young people of color. Representation matters, and all students should have the opportunity to be taught by diverse educators. Raise the Bar: Boldly Improve Learning Conditions | U.S. Department of Education

Future Need: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates 37,600 openings for special education teachers will be needed annually between 2021-2031.

To help address these challenges, the Administration unveiled Raise the Bar: Lead the World, an initiative that focuses on achieving academic excellence, boldly improving learning conditions, and creating pathways for global engagement. As part of the effort to improve learning conditions, the Department has worked to:

Stabilize the profession through $122 billion in American Rescue Plan and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to eliminate educator shortages, and strategies to sustain these investments.

Improve Teacher Compensation, Working Conditions and Promote Career Ladders for Teachers through use of Title I and Title II investments, and other strategies

Support Effective New Teacher Induction and Ongoing Professional Learning through investments in high-quality programs for new and experienced educators

Support High-Quality and Affordable Educator Preparation through partnership with the Department of Labor and initiatives that expand registered apprenticeship programs, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and TEACH Grants for educators.

Promote Educator Diversity through a range of federal grant programs to support teacher diversity throughout its efforts to recruit, develop, and retain teachers.

Leverage Partnerships to Support Teacher Recruitment through Department partnerships with organizations to address educator shortages through private - and nonprofit-sector actions focused on connecting job seekers and school districts.

Additionally, OSEP's past work on personnel shortages, outline innovative strategies States and local communities can take to address these shortages. Moreover, our current Part D personnel development investments are taking an exciting and innovative approach to this issue. I want to highlight the critical role of teacher preparation programs in supporting our future educators in proactively and positively addressing the behavioral needs of children with disabilities.

Supporting children starts with building systems that listen to what our educators are saying. According to NCES data from the 2021-22 school year:

79% of public schools reported needing more support for student and/or staff mental health;

70% of public schools reported needing training to support students' social-emotional development; and

51% of public schools reported as needing training on classroom management strategies.

In recognition of this pervasive challenge, last month the Biden-Harris Administration announced nearly $100 million in continued support for mental health and student wellness through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Much of this investment will support increasing the pipeline of mental health professionals in our nation's schools, and builds off of the seven recommendations highlighted in the Department's Supporting Child and Student Social, Emotional, Behavioral, and Mental Health Needs. Additional information about current opportunities for OSEP funded personnel development grants can be found here.

We know our educator preparation programs have a role and responsibility to best prepare future educators to answer the realities of a classroom, including how to best support the social-emotional development and behavioral needs of students. When we provide educators with evidence-based practices, paired with systems that support their implementation, the result is often a reduced reliance on exclusionary discipline.

It is my belief that truly inclusive schools and early childhood programs, where all children and educators feel a sense of belonging, must start at the earliest stages of educator preparation. To start, OSEP's guidance on IDEA's discipline and behavior requirements should be shared in educator preparation programs. Addressing the behavioral needs of a child with disabilities is rooted in IDEA's requirements but is realized through the implementation of evidence-based practices, many of which are highlighted in OSEP's technical assistance guide, Positive, Proactive Approaches to Supporting the Needs of Children with Disabilities: A Guide for Stakeholders and the Department's Guiding Principles for Creating Safe, Inclusive, Supportive, and Fair School Climates.

I am pleased to further explore this topic with the OSEP-funded Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform (CEEDAR) Center. The CEEDAR Center helps reimagine educator preparation programs and state policies and programs to support improved outcomes for children with and without disabilities. With a focus on state and local educational agencies, and institutes of higher education, the CEEDAR Center has produced a wealth of resources and technical assistance.

I hope this information helps you start or continue conversations about how preparing our future educators can help reduce a reliance on exclusionary discipline.
Click on the questions to view the responses.
Step 1: Engage key leaders

Step 2: Facilitate needs assessment

Step 4: Review programs

Step 6: Implement reforms

Step 8: Scale impact

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Discipline Discussions: Preparing Future Educators to Proactively, Positively Address Behavior

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Recently, I asked my sixth-grade son to complete this sentence: School is a place where I ______. Without hesitation, Matthew responded, "School is a place where I go to learn and have fun." Matthew is my 12-year-old son who happens to have Down Syndrome.

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Inside IES Research | Special Educator Shortage: Examining Teacher Burnout and Mental Health

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In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, NCSER would like to discuss special education teacher bur

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Teachers are picking up slack for absent colleagues. They're covering for unfilled positions. And 55% of them say they will leave teaching sooner than they had originally planned, according to a poll of its members by the nation's largest teachers union.

The National Education Association poll, conducted in January, helps quantify the stress being placed on educators right now. It found that the number who say they'll leave the profession sooner has risen significantly since August. Among the NEA poll's other findings:

90% of its members say that feeling burned out is a serious problem.

86% say they have seen more educators leaving the profession or retiring early since the start of the pandemic.

80% report that unfilled job openings have led to more work obligations for those left.

"Last summer, I started traveling across the country," says Becky Pringle, president of the NEA, which has nearly 3 million members, talking about the impetus for the survey. "Without exception, every stop I made, from Kentucky to Oakland, I heard those similar stories of educators who were exhausted, overwhelmed, feeling unloved, disrespected."

The poll found a racial gap in discontent: 62% of Black teachers and 59% of Hispanic teachers say they will leave earlier than planned, compared with 55% overall. But the desire to leave the profession was at similar levels for rookies, midcareer educators and those closer to retirement.

"Our morning emails every day start with the vacancies that have been unfilled," says Amber McCoy, an NEA member who teaches fourth grade in Huntington, W.Va. "[It] will tell us where we have staffing shortages in the building and [ask] us to step in in any way or any time that we can."

She says it's less the 20-year veterans like herself and more the young teachers that are leaving, or considering leaving.

"This is just not what they bargained for," McCoy says. "I also mentor new teachers in my county and one of the girls that had done some clinical work in my classroom, she called me and she just said, 'Is it normal for me to cry every single day after school?' And I said, 'Honey, it's not normal. But this year it's not uncommon.' "

Of course, saying that you're thinking about leaving, or reporting the perception that others are leaving, is not the same as actually putting in your notice. Still, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says there are 567,000 fewer educators in America's public schools today than there were before the pandemic. And the NEA's analysis of BLS data indicates that 43% of jobs posted are going unfilled.

When it comes to solutions, the NEA says money is uppermost in its members' minds. They support raising salaries and hiring more people. Pringle says the union has been amplifying the Biden administration's message that American Rescue Plan money - $122 billion in federal aid to K-12 schools - can and should be used to improve pay and create new positions.

"We were asked to assist [U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona] to really push on this part of the use of those funds," Pringle says, "because some school districts were a little leery about using them to hire staff."

One big reason for that, she explained, is that the extra money is set to sunset within three years, whereas hiring someone or giving them a raise is an indefinite financial commitment.

Yet even if the funding is temporary, Pringle argues, it's needed right now.

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More than half of teachers are looking for the exits, a poll says

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Teachers are picking up slack for absent colleagues. They're covering for unfilled positions. And 55% of them say they will leave teaching sooner than they had originally planned, according to a poll of its members by the nation's largest teachers union. The National Education Association poll, conducted in January, helps quantify the stress being placed on educators right now.

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Administration & Leadership

Administrators can use these tried-and-true strategies to meet the needs of their staff-from planning time to bathroom breaks.

As administrators know, teachers have diverse needs. For a productive, healthy school community, it's critical that teachers feel those needs are being met-or, at the very least, taken seriously.

When Edutopia asked teachers what principals could do to make them feel seen and heard, we received hundreds of responses. Some teachers sought respect: " I need her to trust that I have the experience to pace my classroom appropriately for the learners I have." Others sought time: " I love it when they give the gift of time-when they realize we need time to just get things done instead of PD."

Some wanted clarity: " Have systems in place for clear and frequent communication." Many asked for support: " Acknowledge mental health concerns and needs. Everyone deserves balance in their work/home life." And some simply wanted to be listened to: " I know they're super busy, but I need a chance to be heard here and there."

Thankfully, school leaders have the power to honor these needs-to reduce stress, carve out planning time, rebuild teachers' work-life balance, and more.

Here are nine actionable, administrator-tested strategies we gathered from our archives-and across the web-to help school leaders ensure that teachers' needs are met.

1. Focus on Subtraction

Start with a major shift in your mindset. Research suggests that when people are asked to look for process improvements, they "systematically default" to things they can add, and they tend to overlook subtractive changes-especially when under stress. It might feel like progress means adding more meetings, more goals, and more tech tools, but subtractioncan often be even more beneficial; consolidating or removing elements can free up teachers' time and energy to focus on what really matters, suggests MIT professor Justin Reich, writing for ASCD.

Educational consultant Michelle Blanchet recommends having a "ditch meeting" where you and your staff can brainstorm what to eliminate. Good administrators should "understand that they need to be willing to remove things from one's plate before adding more," educator Brenda Richards agrees.

Relatedly, it's natural for school leaders to have expansive visions-but there are benefits to setting smaller, short-term targets, write researchers Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer for the Harvard Business Review. Meeting periodic small-scale goals boosts people's motivation and positive feelings toward work. "Big wins are great-but they are relatively rare," they write, which can leave teachers feeling unmotivated.

2. Take the Temperature

You can't fix what you can't see. Both private, one-to-one meetings and anonymous surveys allow leaders to gather information and identify problems in culture or processes before they fester. You can pluck survey question ideas from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Quality of Worklife Questionnaire -like "How often do the demands of your job interfere with your family life?" and "After an average work day, about how many hours do you have to relax or pursue activities that you enjoy?"

Merrimack College's yearly teacher survey offers other questions, like "How would you rate the impact of your mental health/wellness on your teaching and professional growth this year?" and "How would you describe your district's programming to support employees' mental health/wellness?" Based on teachers' responses, consider what interventions best fit your staff.

3. Reduce Meeting Clutter

Busy teachers really don't like unnecessary meetings. Pressure-test a prospective meeting: If you can't produce a rich agenda in advance, you can probably delay for a bit. And if you find that the goal of an approaching meeting is simply to disseminate basic information, then the meeting can be an email instead, suggests college readiness teacher Jill Fletcher -an idea that has been echoed by dozens of teachers commenting on Edutopia's social media platforms.

Try an experiment: If you meet once a week, meet every other week instead, suggests educator Jennifer Gonzalez for Cult of Pedagogy. You'll likely be surprised to see that things still run smoothly with half as many meetings. Whatever you do, don't let the tail wag the dog: "It's not necessary to have a meeting simply because the schedule says that faculty meetings are in the cafeteria on Mondays," Fletcher writes.

4. Respect (and Leverage) Teachers' Expertise

Within a school, teachers are often the best equipped to understand the needs of their students, so it follows that good school policy emerges from collaboration. "Ask for input from the teachers on big school decisions before implementing them... and actually consider the input and change the plan if needed," comments educator Lauren Swisher.

When considering a truly transformative change in your school, go slower and work on buy-in: Recruit a few trusted teachers to run a pilot program before rolling it out to the rest of the staff, educator Monica Washington recommends to EducationWeek.

"Regardless of how you collect feedback, reflect on it, share the results, and make its implementation transparent," writes high school principal Mike Woodlock. Make it clear why suggestions were accepted or rejected. You can't accept every idea that comes your way, but gathering staff feedback "gives you the ability to be more effective and inclusive in dealing with their needs" and creates a culture of mutual respect, he writes.

5. Make Time and Space for Basic Needs

Restore some dignity to the schedule: Teachers need time to go to the restroom. Half of all teachers say they're getting inadequate bathroom breaks, according to this article in The Atlantic, and one elementary educator recalls spending "45 minutes feeling nauseous and miserable and questioning whether teaching is really the profession for me."

To ensure that teacher bathroom time is guaranteed, one strategy to consider is a "tap-in/tap-out" system. At Fall-Hamilton Elementary in Nashville, Tennessee, teachers who need to briefly step away from the classroom (for any reason) can text their available colleagues and quickly find someone who's happy to cover for them for a few minutes. You can also consider ways to build designated breaks into the schedule. For some teachers- like one Reddit user who says the closest bathroom is three minutes away, while passing time is only six minutes-a short extension of the time between bells could go a long way.

6. Give them Planning Time

It's one of the biggest complaints we hear: Teachers simply don't have adequate planning time in their schedules-and by failing to allow collaborative planning, schools miss an opportunity to tap into their staff's expertise and socialize their best practices. "With more hours to plan, teachers can more thoughtfully adapt their lessons and units to the students in front of them," writes middle school math teacher José Vilson.

One strategy for carving time out of packed calendars: Administrators can lead students on SEL-focused morning meetings each day in the cafeteria or the gym, as middle school assistant principal Crystal Caballero does at her Washington, DC-area school. This grants teachers a bit more time to plan before first period-and offers students a variety of social and emotional benefits, Caballero writes.

You can also turn to scheduling changes. Principal Justin Uppinghouse helped develop a schedule for his Nashville elementary school that gave students extra classes with STEAM specialists outside the core staff, offering teachers blocks of time for either professional development or curriculum planning, grading, and collaboration. Plus, you can build free planning time into professional development days or use staff days as "catch-up days" for teachers to finish up their backlog of work.

7. Defend a teacher's right to disconnect

Teachers receive up to 100 emails per day, one survey found-and increasingly technology is blurring the boundary between the work life and home life of educators, research suggests. Give your staff explicit permission to disconnect from school-related communications outside of work hours. Emails and texts at odd hours can can make teachers feel as though they're on call late into the night, explains Caroline Murphy, a researcher at the Kemmy Business School at the University of Limerick.

Consider adopting a time window during which emails should not be sent or answered, as principal Megel Barker suggests for ASCD -and to ensure that you're able to stick to it, try using the "schedule send" feature so that your emails arrive at a chosen time (say, 7 a.m.) rather than sending them out immediately, Barker advises.

You can take things one step further: Encourage your staff to remove their work email accounts from their smartphones altogether, and model this behavior yourself. "I share with staff that I do not have work email on my phone," principal Jessica Cabeen confirms.

8. On Self-Care, Go Beyond Lip Service

"Our days as educators are so busy, and we invest so much in others, that finding time for our own self-care and rest can be difficult," writes Spanish and STEAM teacher Rachelle Dené Poth. If your staff members are experiencing high levels of stress, consider incorporating elements of self-care into workdays, rather than asking teachers to carve out free time for them-and find ways for the school to pay any relevant fees.

At Arcadia High School, outside of Los Angeles, for example, administrators created a staff helpline for "mini check-in therapy sessions," in partnership with trained counselors. The school also hired a yoga instructor for weekly virtual classes, and Arcadia teachers have the option to participate in 30-minute mini-lessons on topics of interest, such as mindfulness and positive psychology. Before staff meetings, Arcadia's wellness counselor leads the group on mindfulness and breathing exercises. "Starting from a place of peace and calm makes all of us more receptive and present during the meeting," writes assistant principal Michele Lew.

9. Avoid Micromanaging

School leaders might feel compelled to keep a close eye on teachers' work hours and clock the time they spend in the school building. But "as long as they are getting their work done and are there for students, we should call it even," write Oregon principals Rachael and John George for ASCD. Bring a little more remote work options into the mix. "Grading can happen in a coffee shop, and online in-service trainings can be done at home in your pajamas. It is all OK," the principals insist.

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9 Ways for Schools to Honor Teacher Needs This Year

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Administrators can use these tried-and-true strategies to meet the needs of their staff-from planning time to bathroom breaks.