By Dr. Kennette Thigpen Harris
Educators play a foundational role in society, shaping future generations while supporting their students every day. However, many are also managing responsibilities beyond the classroom—caring for their own children and supporting family members. This raises a critical question: how sustainable is this reality?
According to the September 2025 TELUS Health Mental Health Index (MHI), education workers appear to be doing “better than average.” Yet these averages conceal a critical gap: teacher-parents.
For teacher-parents, the school day doesn’t simply end. After a full day of supporting students, many return home to a second set of responsibilities, leaving limited time for self-care unless it’s made a priority.
Teacher-Parents vs. Everyone Else
Across both Canada and the U.S., education ranks as a relatively high-performing sector in overall mental health rankings, however, these averages conceal a more nuanced reality. The U.S. MHI shows that workers with at least one child score significantly lower than those without children (64.7 vs. 70.0). Scores between 50–79 indicate “strained” mental health.
Within a predominantly female workforce, this strain is intensified. U.S. data shows that women consistently report lower overall mental health scores than men (66.5 vs. 70.1 in September 2025). The same Canadian study found that women are 50% more likely than men to rate employer support for their well-being as poor. These numbers underscore how structural gaps in support disproportionately affect those already carrying the heaviest load.
Findings from the Center for Organizational Effectiveness’ (COE) 2026 Psychological Safety Study (88 million employees, 47 countries) reinforce a broader workforce trend. Across industries, work-life balance has become the number one stressor and has remained the top concern for Canadian workers for the second year in a row.
Together, these findings reveal a deeper issue: employees are being asked to take on more without sufficient support. Over time, this makes it harder to “switch off,” increasing burnout as demands compound across work and home life.
Why Current Wellness Efforts Fall Short
In response to growing awareness of mental health challenges, many schools have introduced wellness initiatives such as mindfulness sessions, wellness days, and standalone professional development workshops. While well-intentioned, these approaches often have limited impact when they are not paired with structural changes to workload and expectations. As peer-reviewed research on educator well-being published in School Psychology emphasizes, “individual self-care is necessary, yet insufficient.”
Rather than reducing pressure, short-term wellness initiatives often sit alongside unchanged workloads and unclear expectations. Heavy workloads persist, expectations stay unclear, and sustained stress reduces employees’ willingness to speak up or seek support.
This is consistent with OECD findings showing that teacher stress is strongly linked to high workload, administrative burden, and “constant, unsupported change,” particularly when teachers are asked to implement frequent initiatives without adequate support.
This also aligns with broader findings from the COE’s Psychological Safety Study, revealing that rising demands alongside limited capacity contribute to sustained employee strain. When psychological safety is low, employees are less likely to speak up, reducing engagement, innovation, and performance.
The Broader Impact on Education Systems
When strain becomes normalized without corresponding support, the burden of coping shifts onto the individuals rather than the systems. The result is a widening gap between awareness and capacity. As stress becomes an individual expectation, it can have a cascading effect, driving teacher burnout and disengagement. In turn, this can impact student engagement and learning outcomes, as well as increasing turnover.
Education, however, is not a typical profession—it is fundamentally a care-based role. Beyond delivering curriculum, educators are responsible for managing classrooms, supporting students’ emotional needs, navigating behavioural challenges, and creating environments where young people feel safe and supported. This often-invisible labour carries a significant mental and emotional load, making the role both physically and psychologically demanding.
Recent reporting from the National Education Association highlights the scale of the issue: 78% of teachers have thought about quitting since the pandemic, driven by lack of administrative support, excessive workloads, inadequate compensation, and challenging student behaviour. If these systemic issues get left unaddressed, high turnover will continue, “creating a ripple effect,” handing the remaining educators increased workloads without support.
When teachers leave due to burnout, that burden shifts to those who remain, increasing responsibilities and accelerating stress on workers already spread thin. Examples include larger class sizes, increased strain on remaining teachers, and declining student outcomes. It is a self-reinforcing cycle of exhaustion, disengagement, and further attrition—destabilizing both the educator workforce and the learning environments students depend on.
What Real Support Looks Like in Practice
With these pressures straining the education workforce, the question becomes: what does meaningful, practical support actually look like?
At the leadership level, solutions must begin with aligning expectations to reality. In a profession that is already highly demanding—especially for those balancing caregiving responsibilities outside of work—flexibility where feasible can make a measurable difference. This may include adjusted scheduling, greater autonomy over time, or reconsidering rigid structures that do not reflect the realities of educators’ workloads.
Protected planning time is also critical. Without dedicated time to prepare lessons, complete administrative tasks, and respond to student needs during the workday, these responsibilities are pushed into personal time—blurring boundaries and increasing the chance of burnout. Equally important is ensuring that workload expectations are realistic and aligned with actual capacity, rather than aspirational standards that rely on sustained overextension.
At the cultural level, schools must create psychologically safe environments where well-being is openly acknowledged and supported. When educators feel safe discussing challenges—whether that means asking for help, taking mental health days, or seeking external support—they are more likely to access the resources they need before reaching a breaking point.
This is where leadership plays a defining role. Training school leaders in psychological safety can significantly shift workplace culture. When leaders model openness, respond constructively to feedback, and create space for honest dialogue, they reduce stigma and build trust. In these environments, educators are more willing to speak up about challenges, collaborate with peers, and engage more fully in their work.
For teacher-parents, support also includes practical, day-to-day strategies that acknowledge competing responsibilities. Setting boundaries, prioritizing tasks, and building in recovery time can reduce stress, alongside peer support networks that alleviate isolation.
These are not large-scale overhauls, but practical, achievable shifts. When implemented together, they begin to close the gap between awareness and capacity—creating conditions where educators are sustainably supported.
From Coping to Sustainable
Educator well-being is not separate from system performance—it is foundational to it. Rather than being an add-on to school systems, psychological safety is a core condition for sustaining a stable, effective workforce. Moving forward requires a shift from short-term wellness initiatives to structural conditions that allow educators to work sustainably over time.
Workforces that protect their people ultimately protect the profession as a whole. Meaningful change must occur at every level to strengthen educator well-being—particularly for teacher-parents, whose caregiving responsibilities inside and outside of school require systems that support, sustain, and reflect the same care they provide every day in their work.
Dr. Kennette Thigpen Harris, affectionately known as Dr. K, is an international psychologist with 20 years of experience in mental health. She currently serves as Chief Clinical Officer at TELUS Health, where she leads clinical initiatives focused on enhancing well-being and quality of care.