Teacher burnout is not a buzzword. It is a measurable, documented crisis that is reshaping public education in Delaware and across the country. According to a 2024 survey by the Delaware State Education Association (DSEA), three out of five Delaware educators say they are more likely to retire early or leave public education entirely — not because they have lost their passion for teaching, but because the conditions they work in have become unsustainable. At The Center for Child Development, we have spent more than 20 years working inside Delaware schools alongside these educators. We see what they carry. And we believe it is time someone carried something for them.
How Bad Is Teacher Burnout in Delaware?
The numbers are stark. The DSEA surveyed more than 1,000 Delaware public educators in 2024 and found that the profession is hemorrhaging talent at an alarming rate. Seventy-five percent of educators reported they are more likely to retire or leave education earlier than planned. A similar survey conducted at the end of 2023 found that 70% of all Delaware educators were dissatisfied with their working conditions, with more than 95% expressing concern about stress and burnout.
These are not outliers. Nationally, a 2024 RAND Corporation survey of nearly 1,500 teachers found that 60% of K-12 educators are burned out. A 2025 We Are Teachers survey of more than 2,400 educators found that 91.95% have experienced burnout, with nearly 75% rating their burnout as severe. The crisis is everywhere, but Delaware's numbers are among the most alarming in the country.
The average Delaware public school teacher now spends seven hours per month managing student outbursts and behavioral health issues instead of teaching. For middle school teachers, that number climbs to ten hours per month — more than a full school day lost every month to crisis management rather than instruction.
What Is Driving Teacher Burnout?
Burnout does not come from one bad day. It builds over months and years of chronic stress without adequate support. For Delaware educators, several factors are converging to create a perfect storm.
Student behavioral challenges have intensified dramatically. According to the DSEA survey, 75% of educators have experienced verbal outbursts that disrupted learning. Fifty-eight percent have dealt with property damage by students. Fifty-five percent have faced verbal aggression or threats. Perhaps most alarming, 39% have evacuated their classrooms due to unsafe student behavior, and one in five educators — 20% — has been physically injured by a student.
Support systems are insufficient. Seventy-five percent of educators report a lack of parental support in dealing with student discipline. Sixty percent say they lack adequate support from school administrators. Fifty-two percent say additional staff support that could help manage behavioral issues is missing from their classrooms. And 47% say students are still not getting the mental health support they need, despite recent funding increases for school mental health workers.
Secondary traumatic stress is real and underrecognized. Educators who work with children experiencing trauma, poverty, abuse, or neglect absorb that pain. Research published in the School Psychology Review confirms that elementary school teachers experience greater levels of secondary traumatic stress than both middle school and high school teachers — likely because younger children's distress is more visible and harder to compartmentalize. A 2025 study of teachers in low-socioeconomic-status schools found that 92.8% were at moderate or high risk of burnout, with secondary trauma as a primary driver.
Compassion fatigue erodes the very thing that made them good teachers. The National Education Association has documented how educators describe feeling emotionally drained, unable to connect with students the way they once did. One teacher told NEA, "My empathy felt drained." When the people whose job depends on caring for others run out of capacity to care, the entire system suffers — teachers, students, and families alike.
What Does Teacher Burnout Actually Look Like?
Burnout is not just feeling tired after a long week. It is a clinical syndrome characterized by three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment. For educators, this often manifests in ways that are easy to dismiss or misattribute.
Emotional exhaustion shows up as dreading Monday mornings, feeling physically drained despite adequate sleep, crying in the car before or after school, or losing the ability to "turn off" work stress at home. Many educators describe a persistent heaviness that does not lift during weekends or even summer break.
Depersonalization is the clinical term for what teachers often describe as "going through the motions." It is a protective numbness — a way the brain shields itself from continued emotional overload. Teachers may notice they have become more cynical, less patient with students, or emotionally detached from colleagues they once felt close to.
Reduced personal accomplishment means feeling like nothing you do matters. Despite working 50 or 60 hours a week, burned-out educators often feel they are failing their students, their families, and themselves. This is particularly painful for people who entered the profession because they genuinely wanted to make a difference.
Why Don't More Teachers Seek Help?
If burnout is this widespread, why aren't more educators getting professional support? The barriers are both practical and cultural.
Scheduling is nearly impossible. Most therapists keep standard business hours — the same hours teachers are in classrooms. Taking time off for a therapy appointment means arranging a substitute, writing sub plans, and dealing with the guilt of leaving students. Many teachers simply cannot make it work logistically.
Stigma persists. Despite growing awareness of mental health, many educators worry that seeking therapy will be perceived as weakness or inability to handle the job. In school cultures that reward toughness and self-sacrifice, admitting you need help can feel like admitting you are not cut out for the work.
Confidentiality concerns are real. In tight-knit school communities, educators worry about running into colleagues or parents in a therapist's waiting room. They worry about what might end up in their personnel file. They worry about being treated differently if anyone finds out.
Financial barriers add up. Even with insurance, copays for weekly therapy sessions and psychiatric appointments can total hundreds of dollars per month — a significant burden on educator salaries that have not kept pace with inflation.
What Is The Center for Child Development Doing About It?
We built the Educator Wellness Program because we believe the people who show up for Delaware's children every day deserve someone who shows up for them.
This is not a generic employee assistance program with a 1-800 number and a six-session limit. This is a dedicated mental health program designed specifically for educators in our partner schools, staffed by two professionals who understand the unique pressures of working in education.
Dr. Rosa L. Sutton, Ed.D., LPCMH provides one-on-one therapy for educators dealing with anxiety, depression, PTSD, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and complex trauma. Dr. Sutton's background in school-based mental health means she does not need you to explain the particular exhaustion of being a mandated reporter, crisis responder, and educator all at once. She already knows. Her work focuses on trauma-informed, evidence-based care built for long-term stability — not just getting you through the week.
Taneka Johnson, PMHNP-BC provides comprehensive psychiatric evaluations and ongoing medication management for educators who need pharmacological support alongside therapy. Having both services in one coordinated program means your care works together, not in separate silos. Taneka offers telehealth medication appointments so you do not have to rearrange your entire day.
How Does the Educator Wellness Program Work?
We designed this program to eliminate every barrier we could identify.
No referrals. No waitlists. Just call. If you are an educator in one of our partner schools, you can access the program by calling 302-292-1334. There is no bureaucratic intake process, no weeks-long wait for an appointment, and no need for a referral from your principal or HR department.
Telehealth is available for both therapy and psychiatry. You do not need to leave school or drive across town. Both Dr. Sutton and Taneka Johnson offer telehealth appointments that fit around your schedule.
Insurance is accepted. The program accepts Aetna, Highmark, Health Options, AmeriHealth, and Delaware Centene. We work to minimize your out-of-pocket costs.
Everything is completely confidential. Your scheduling, your sessions, and your records are private. Your school will never know you are participating unless you choose to share that information. This is your care, on your terms.
What Types of Issues Can the Program Help With?
The Educator Wellness Program is designed to address the specific mental health challenges that educators face. Through therapy with Dr. Sutton, educators can work on anxiety and chronic workplace stress, depression and prolonged burnout, PTSD from student trauma or crisis exposure, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and complex trauma affecting daily functioning.
Through psychiatric services with Taneka Johnson, educators can access comprehensive psychiatric evaluations, medication management for anxiety and depression, ADHD assessment and treatment, coordinated care with their therapist, ongoing medication monitoring, and telehealth medication appointments.
Whether you are dealing with the cumulative weight of years in the classroom or a specific crisis that has shaken you, this program is built to meet you where you are.
Why Educator Mental Health Matters for Students
This is not just about educators — though they deserve support in their own right. Research consistently shows that teacher well-being directly impacts student outcomes. When educators are emotionally exhausted, student engagement drops. When teachers are burned out, classroom management suffers. When the adults in the building are struggling, children feel it.
The DSEA survey found that behavioral challenges are causing Delaware teachers to lose seven to ten hours of instruction time per month. That is time students are not learning. When we invest in educator mental health, we are investing in the learning environment for every child in that classroom.
As DSEA President Stephanie Ingram put it: "We're at a crisis point in public education that's only going to get worse until administrators, school boards and state legislators take corrective action to restore our schools to the safe and healthy learning environments that students need to be successful."
The Educator Wellness Program is one piece of that corrective action. When educators are well, students do better. It is that simple.
Signs You Might Be Experiencing Burnout
If you are an educator reading this and wondering whether what you are feeling qualifies as burnout, here are some questions to consider. Do you dread going to work most days, even though you used to love teaching? Do you feel emotionally numb or detached from your students? Are you more irritable, impatient, or cynical than you used to be? Do you have trouble sleeping, or do you wake up already feeling exhausted? Have you noticed physical symptoms like headaches, stomach problems, or frequent illness? Do you feel like no matter how hard you work, it is never enough? Have you thought about leaving education entirely?
If you answered yes to several of these, you are not weak. You are not failing. You are experiencing a predictable response to an unsustainable situation. And there is help available.
Take the First Step
You show up for your students every single day. You deserve support that shows up for you.
If you are an educator in a CCD partner school, the Educator Wellness Program is available to you right now. Call 302-292-1334 or email [email protected] to schedule your first appointment. No referrals needed. No waitlists. Completely confidential.
If your school is not yet a CCD partner and you are interested in bringing the Educator Wellness Program to your building, we would love to talk. Reach out to us at the same number or email, and we will walk you through how the partnership works.
The Center for Child Development is Delaware's largest school-based mental health provider, serving children, teens, families, and now educators across the state for more than 20 years.