Thinking of leaving teaching? Staying, changing or going
Whether you stay, change or go, you can make this choice with care, not just in the middle of a hard week.
By the numbers
Who leaves, why, and how life looks afterwards.
Staying & leaving
After leaving
The feelings that come with wondering
Guilt, grief, relief and fear can all show up at once.
For many people teaching is more than a job. It is a calling, an identity and a community. So thinking about leaving can bring big, mixed feelings.
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Guilt often shows how much you care. But staying in a job that is harming your health doesn’t help students in the long run either. Your wellbeing matters too.
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Leaving any meaningful role can bring a sense of loss, even when it is the right choice. Grief and relief can sit side by side.
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Relief is useful information. It may point to what is draining you most, whether that is the whole job or one part of it.
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Many teachers underestimate how much their skills transfer. The skills section below may help.
Is it the job, the school, or teaching itself?
Pinning down the real problem points to the right fix.
Burnout is closely tied to wanting to quit. A review of studies found that exhaustion was the part of burnout most strongly linked to teachers’ plans to leave. Burnout grows from a mismatch with the job in areas like workload, control, reward, community, fairness and values.
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Signs
- You’d love teaching somewhere with better support
- Colleagues at other schools seem happier
- Problems are about how this school is run
Moving schools is common: 8% of public school teachers moved from 2020–21 to 2021–22.
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Signs
- You love one part of the job and dread another
- A different age group or subject excites you
- You’d like to work with teachers or small groups instead
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Signs
- You feel this way at every school and in every role
- Your health or family keeps paying the price
- You’ve tried changes and they didn’t help
- Another kind of work genuinely pulls you
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Burnout can make you feel cynical and ineffective about work in general. Some recovery first may make the decision clearer.
Changing without leaving
Options inside education before you walk away.
Leaving the classroom doesn’t have to mean leaving education. Of public school teachers who left teaching, 39% moved into other K–12 jobs that weren’t classroom teaching.
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Ask on visits
- How are new staff supported?
- How is behaviour handled schoolwide?
- How are duties and planning time shared?
- Can I talk with a teacher here?
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- Moving between elementary, middle and high school
- Small-group intervention or tutoring
- Online or alternative schools
- Part-time or job-share, where offered
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Instructional coordinators develop curriculum, train teachers and look at whether teaching methods work. They typically need a master’s degree and several years of related experience, often as a teacher.
Other school roles, like counselor or school psychologist, need extra training and licensure. Check your state’s requirements.
Practical checks before you resign
Contract dates, benefits, loans and licence: what to look at.
A few practical checks can save stress and money later. This is general information, not legal or financial advice. Your HR office, union representative, retirement system or a legal aid office can help with your exact situation.
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Check
- When you must give notice, and how
- Whether leaving mid-year has any penalties under your contract or state rules
- What happens to unused leave
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Ask
- Your state teacher retirement system: what you keep if you leave now
- How close you are to any key service milestone
- When health coverage ends, and what your options are after
Retirement was the most common reason public school teachers gave for leaving, so these systems are worth understanding at any age.
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Teacher Loan Forgiveness requires five complete, consecutive academic years of full-time teaching at a qualifying low-income school. Leaving before then may affect eligibility.
Check the official StudentAid.gov pages or your loan servicer before deciding.
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Check your state’s renewal rules. Keeping your licence active can make it easier to return or to work in other education roles later, if you choose.
Skills that travel and paths people take
Teaching skills are valued in many other jobs.
Teachers plan, explain, manage groups, handle conflict, assess progress, use data and communicate with families every day. Those skills are useful far beyond school.
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Training and development specialists plan and deliver programs that build employees’ skills. A bachelor’s degree is usual, and employers may value related experience, including teaching.
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Instructional coordinators develop curriculum and train teachers, usually with a master’s degree and teaching or instructional leadership experience.
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- Education nonprofits and community programs
- Libraries, museums and youth organisations
- Tutoring or test preparation
- Educational publishing or technology
- Human resources and coaching
Research any path with informational chats before you commit. Changing careers & starting over has a career test-drive worksheet.
Who am I if I’m not “Ms. or Mr. ___”?
Identity, loss and finding meaning in what comes next.
Teaching often becomes part of who you are. Leaving can bring an identity wobble: the summers, the routines, the title, the students who greet you in the supermarket.
Ways to steady yourself through change
- Acknowledge your wins, including years of students you helped
- Build a new daily routine you control
- Check in honestly with how you feel, ideally with someone you trust
- Focus on what you can do today, in small steps
- Notice what stays the same: your values, people and strengths
Telling students, colleagues and family
What to say, and what to leave out.
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You could say
- “I won’t be teaching here next year. I want you to know how much I’ve loved being your teacher.”
- “This is about my next step, not about anything you did.”
Try to avoid
- Sharing frustrations about the school or leaders
- Announcing before your administrator knows
- Promising to stay in touch privately (follow school rules on contact)
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You could say
- “I’ve decided to resign at the end of the year. I’ll do everything I can to make the handover smooth.”
- “If it helps, I’m happy to share what would have helped me stay.”
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You could say
- “I’ve thought about this for a long time. Here’s my plan.”
- “I need your support more than your advice right now.”
For all school staff
Aides, counselors, bus drivers and others face these choices too.
Teachers are not the only ones wondering whether to stay. In an APA task force survey, 34% of school psychologists and social workers, 31% of administrators and 29% of other school staff reported a desire or plan to quit or transfer.
Things to think about in any school role
- Could a different school, route or schedule help?
- Is there training that could open another role?
- Does your contract have notice rules?
- Who at school can you talk to honestly?
When and where to get help
Support for the decision and for you.
A big decision is easier with support. An Employee Assistance Program can offer free, confidential short-term counseling. If stress or low mood is getting in the way of daily life, talk with a clinical provider or counselor.
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Free, confidential support any time for anyone in emotional distress or suicidal crisis.
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Free, confidential support by text with a trained crisis counselor.
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Find A Helpline lists free, verified helplines in more than 175 countries, and IASP partners with it.
In the UK, Education Support runs a free, confidential helpline for serving, former and retired education staff: 08000 562 561.
📝 Worksheets for this guide
Fill these in privately in the app. Your answers stay on your phone.
Sources
- Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education (2023). Eight Percent of Public School Teachers Left Teaching in 2021, a Rate Unchanged Since Last Measured in 2012
- National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) (2025). Are the teachers alright? A new survey offers some answers (summary of RAND’s 2025 State of the American Teacher survey)
- RAND Corporation (2025). State of the American Teacher survey: teacher well-being, pay and intentions to leave in 2025 (Steiner, Levine, Doan & Woo)
- Madigan & Kim (via White Rose Research Online) (2021). Towards an understanding of teacher attrition: A meta-analysis of burnout, job satisfaction, and teachers’ intentions to quit (Teaching and Teacher Education)
- Maslach & Leiter (via PubMed Central) (2016). Understanding the burnout experience: recent research and its implications for psychiatry (World Psychiatry)
- World Health Organization (WHO) (2019). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Instructional Coordinators (Occupational Outlook Handbook)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Training and Development Specialists (Occupational Outlook Handbook)
- MOHELA (U.S. Department of Education federal loan servicer). Teacher Loan Forgiveness
- NHS Every Mind Matters. How to deal with change and uncertainty
- Rutgers University (on the APA Task Force on Violence Against Educators survey) (2022). Teachers, Other School Staff Faced Increased Violence During Pandemic
- American Psychological Association (APA) Task Force on Violence Against Educators and School Personnel (2022). Violence and aggression against educators and school personnel, retention, stress, and training needs: technical report
- Berkeley School of Education, University of California, Berkeley (on the APA task force survey) (2022). Report: Teachers, other school personnel, experience threats, harassment, violence during pandemic
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). What is an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)?
- National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). I’m So Stressed Out! Fact Sheet
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
- Crisis Text Line. Crisis Text Line
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Crisis Text Line (resource listing)
- ThroughLine (Find A Helpline). Find A Helpline
- International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP). Crisis centres
- Education Support (UK charity). Our helpline
- Department for Education (UK), Get Into Teaching. Get support outside your training
This guide is for education and self-care. It is not a diagnosis or a substitute for professional care. Please talk to a counselor or clinical provider about your health. Reviewed October 2026.
