Nearly 40 percent of special education teachers and more than 30 percent of school-based nurses and counselors considered leaving their role in the past 12 months, according to a recent survey of 1,000 school employees across the U.S. conducted by Soliant Health, a healthcare staffing provider.
Only one in eight respondents surveyed said they plan to stay in education until retirement, with school nurses, on average, saying they only intend to stay in education for a maximum of five more years.
The survey showed that burnout is the culmination of several factors, including student behavioral challenges (23.5 percent), staffing shortages (20.7 percent), high caseload/workload (20.4 percent), safety concerns (20.3 percent) and work-life imbalance (20.2 percent).
Special education teachers and school psychologists reported challenges at nearly identical rates — 27.4 percent of special education teachers and 27.9 percent of school psychologists cited student behavioral challenges as a core driver of burnout. Similarly, 25.2 percent of special education teachers and 25 percent of school psychologists emphasized high caseload/workload.
When asked what would improve their ability to do their job effectively, more than 18 percent of survey respondents said increased leadership support, followed by better mental health resources for students (17.2 percent), improved safety measures (17.1 percent), increased compensation (16.5 percent) and additional staff/support personnel (16.2 percent).
Responses from school psychologists differed from the overall consensus, with 26.5 percent citing better mental health resources for students as a key place for improvement and 22.1 percent calling for professional development opportunities.
Among the state-level findings, California-based respondents cited student behavioral challenges (27.9 percent) and compensation concerns (27.2 percent) as leading issues and better mental health resources for students (22.8 percent), protected planning time (19.9 percent) and greater autonomy (19.1 percent) as their top support requests.
