Teachers across the country are experiencing increased levels of stress that lead to burnout. A 2022 Gallup survey found that 44% of K-12 teachers reported feeling “often” or “always” burnt out, while a 2023 RAND survey indicated that 58% of teachers frequently experience job-related stress. The symptoms of teacher burnout may include:
- Physical symptoms, such as exhaustion and reduced job efficiency.
- Emotional symptoms, such as anxiety, compassion fatigue and changes in attitude.
- Relational symptoms, such as difficulties in relationships with co-workers and family.
Understanding teacher burnout as a consequence of stress is crucial, particularly for special education teachers. The Get SET Nebraska program aims to help schools reduce job-related stress for special educators. However, notable findings related to teachers’ stress, job satisfaction, and responsibilities suggest that administrators need to go beyond the Get SET Nebraska program. They should actively monitor school duties, after-school sponsorships and team involvement for early-career teachers.
SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHER STRESS LEVELS
According to findings from the 2023-24 Get SET Nebraska survey, special education teachers report that their positions are “somewhat stressful” or “very stressful” (see Figure 1). This heightened level of stress is a concern for administrators across Nebraska. When teachers consistently experience high levels of stress, they are more likely to experience burnout and eventually leave their positions.
RESPONSIBILITIES
A recent article from EdWeek highlights that teachers’ stress levels often do not stem directly from teaching students. Instead, stress and burnout frequently arise from being assigned multiple responsibilities, which can diminish the time available for instruction and building connections with students. The myriad of non-teaching duties, often referred to as “other duties as assigned,” can leave teachers feeling they lack sufficient time to teach effectively, foster relationships and develop individualized plans.
According to the IRIS Center, many new teachers are enthusiastic about entering the profession but may underestimate the time required to complete various tasks and overestimate their own abilities. This skewed perception may lead them to overextend themselves. When given the opportunity to volunteer for a duty or activity, they may not fully grasp the time commitment involved.
Roles
Special education teachers often take on numerous roles within the school environment. Roles may include:
- Standard School Day Non-teaching Duties: Morning/hall duty, lunchroom duty, recess duty, study hall, ISS/detention/testing room duty.
- Intermittent Duties Altering Plan Time: Substituting in general education, specials or other necessary day-time coverage.
- Team and Committee Participation: Primary learning communities, school committee participation, Targeted Improvement Plan team, MTSS team, school leadership team, accreditation team or other statewide ongoing PD opportunities.
- Policy and Procedure Completions: Indicator 11/12 completion, Indicator 13 data completion, 504 plan completion, special education policy and procedure work, or maintenance of effort.
- Outside-school Duties: Head coaching, assistant coaching, coaching extra duty assistant, coaching extra duty lead, school club or organization sponsor, planning parent or community events, or after-school activity supervision.
EXTRA DUTIES
When teachers enter the profession, they are excited to interact with youth and make a difference. Interaction or passion may drive their decisions to volunteer or accept additional duties. When teachers agree to complete extra duties, it could mean that they have less time to complete their primary teaching responsibilities.
The Get SET team set out to determine if an overload of non-teaching duties existed and if they could be contributing to job-related stress.
Ninety-five teachers from the 2023-24 scale-up study identified having extra duties they either volunteered for or were assigned. Among them, 63 teachers responding to the survey had three or fewer years of experience within their districts, and 32 teachers had four or more years of experience. Differences existed among duty categories.
General findings are explained below and shown on Table 1.
Overall Results
Standard School Day Non-teaching Duties
Standard school day non-teaching duties are often continuous and may occur on a daily or weekly basis. Special education teachers reported having an average of 4.58 standard duties. Given that many of these are performed daily, the amount of time required for these duties could impede IEP writing time, planning or creating activities, and communicating with colleagues and parents.
Intermittent Duties Altering Plan Time
On average, teachers were assigned only .21 of a duty, but they volunteered to cover .72 of a duty. Intermittent duties and altered plan time solely looks at the amount of time teachers were asked to substitute within the school. Based on the data, schools appear to be limiting the use of special education teachers as substitutes.
Outside-school Duties
An average of 6.89 outside-school duties are held by the responding group. Outside duties are typically more time consuming relative to other duties. Typically, teachers apply for and receive a stipend for engaging in outside-school duties which likely explains the high volunteer rate (89%) in this category. Teachers may spend a significant amount of time on outside duties over months or quarters. These duties often require teachers to be absent during the school day and may require a significant amount of time outside of school.
Team and Committee Participation
On average, teachers participated in 7.11 team and committee activities. There are many team and committee participation opportunities within a school district. Many teams or committees meet on a monthly, quarterly or intermittent schedule.
Policy and Procedure Completions
On average, teachers completed 5.02 policy and procedural duties.
Duties included items specific to state and federal requirements. Duties in this category did not include IEP writing or other general duties of the special education teacher job. They included mainly district special education report requirements or 504 meeting attendance, form completion or teaming opportunities.
Table 1
Special Education Teacher Additional Duties
VOUNTEER VS. ASSIGNED DUTIES
A significant discrepancy between assigned duties and volunteer duties existed in the 2023-24 findings (see Table 1 and Figure 1). Data shows that 90% of special education teachers volunteered to take on additional responsibilities. This finding raises several questions regarding teachers’ understanding of their roles and the time required to fulfill their procedural and teaching obligations. It may also indicate a prevailing culture among special educators that encourages taking on additional responsibilities. This may be related to a desire to belong and help — or teachers could take on certain duties to secure additional pay. This data could also suggest a disconnect between the special education position and the time needed to meet job requirements.
While many teachers reported that they volunteered for these responsibilities, several were assigned to them. This data suggests that an already overwhelmed special educator may be overburdened with additional duties.
Figure 1
Comparison of Assigned and Volunteer Duties
Recommendations
Get SET Nebraska offered an overview of the responsibilities undertaken by special education professionals throughout the year. While the data cannot fully represent every school in the state, it does highlight a potential concern regarding special education teachers. Administrators are encouraged to take proactive steps to reduce stress levels among special education teachers to help prevent burnout.
ADMINISTRATORS SHOULD CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING ACTIONS:
1. Understand the duties of special education teachers.
School administrators face the challenging task of supporting all teachers. If an administrator has not previously worked as a special education teacher, they may not fully grasp the workload involved in ensuring compliance with policies and procedures. It is critical that special education teachers have the time necessary to complete their jobs. When special education teachers are pulled away from service delivery and/or writing time for IEPs, the quality of their work may be affected and result in IDEA non-compliance.
Creating a supportive school culture for special educators requires a comprehensive understanding of their daily responsibilities. Once administrators achieve this understanding, they are likely to better comprehend how additional duties impact the essential tasks special educators must complete.
The Get SET Nebraska Administrative Leadership Academy (ALA) is an excellent resource for administrators seeking additional recommendations. All administrators in Nebraska have on-demand access to the ALA through this webpage.
2. Create clear and detailed job descriptions.
Job descriptions are often vague and may overlook the most challenging tasks or additional responsibilities. Many duties are simply labeled as “other duties as assigned.” To reduce ambiguity and confusion regarding responsibilities, it’s essential to create clear and detailed job descriptions for special education teachers. Teachers should have explicit expectations and feel empowered to decline requests that fall outside their scope of practice or overwhelm their duties to students.
Administrators should ensure that a process of deliberate role design takes place when new special education teachers enter schools. Clear job descriptions allow teachers to thrive within well-defined roles. Connecting assigned committees and procedural tasks to job descriptions provides a framework for both new teachers and administrators to follow. Effectively communicating the responsibilities of special education teachers is crucial. All building leaders need to understand the time and effort required to maintain district compliance.
Get SET Nebraska recognizes the importance of balancing new teachers’ enthusiasm and desire to contribute to the school with their current workload. Administrators should pay close attention to concerns about teacher burnout and stress.
3. Monitor extra duties for all teachers.
Administrators primarily evaluate teachers’ abilities and methods through observations and documentation systems. However, few systems are in place to monitor the overload of duties teachers face, and assessing duty overload is rarely included in teacher evaluations.
Administrators should consider incorporating an extra-duty evaluation component into their processes. While it may not be part of the official evaluation system, addressing duty overload is essential for retaining staff. Monitoring specific responsibilities and time dedicated to them is needed to determine the overall impact of extra duties on individual teachers’ schedules. Administrators are encouraged to conduct an analysis of the extra duties assigned (or volunteered) to all teachers. The analysis should account for the duties assigned and the amount of time spent completing them. Many teaching duties, both inside and outside the classroom, occur weekly or daily and can total from four to 20 hours per month. Without a detailed breakdown, administrators cannot accurately assess the time demands placed on special education teachers. Any time spent on these additional duties limits teachers’ availability for collaborating with parents and agencies, meeting IEP policy requirements and planning individualized instruction.
Get SET Nebraska has created a duties monitoring log for administrators. They may choose to use this tool (Google will ask to make a copy before opening) to monitor the amount of time teachers spend on school-based duties.
4. Set limits on extra duties for new special education teachers.
Many new special education teachers are enthusiastic about entering the profession and eager to get involved. This attitude is evident in the 2023-24 data, which shows that 18 out of 24 duties are volunteer activities. However, this eagerness to participate can quickly lead to burnout. Often, new special education teachers may not fully comprehend the demands of the job, and their excitement may result in overcommitting to volunteer activities. Consequently, they can become overwhelmed and find themselves managing their teaching responsibilities outside of school hours.
While a willingness to help and be engaged is commendable, many new teachers may not fully understand the demands of their roles. It is essential to have open discussions about the time commitment required for the position and to explain why there are limits on volunteer activities. Creating this understanding is crucial for fostering a positive climate and culture. Administrators should consider the number of extra duties or amount of time new special teachers spend on extra duties. Setting caps on volunteering may require adjustments, but it is necessary to ensure teachers can effectively manage their responsibilities.
5. Support quality of practice for special education teachers through focused professional development.
Supporting special education teachers’ quality of practice through effective professional development can increase educator efficacy. Focused professional development, specifically targeting special education teachers, can strengthen their skills to learn programming, manage time, streamline meeting processes and more. The special education field is unique because of the additional compliance with IDEA. Providing novice teachers with professional development that focuses on service delivery models, appropriate progress monitoring and writing high-quality IEPs should be a priority. Once a teacher achieves proficiency, they can gain confidence to take on additional responsibilities.