How to Prevent Teacher Burnout in Early Childhood Education

More than half of early childhood educators are at risk for burnout¹.

For program and other educational leaders, that statistic is more than concerning. It represents a challenge that affects every aspect of program quality, from teacher retention and classroom stability to the daily experiences of children and families.

As workforce shortages and retention concerns continue to impact early childhood programs, one question keeps surfacing: “Why are so many talented educators leaving the field?”

Burnout is often part of the conversation. And it should be.

Too often, however, burnout is framed as an individual challenge. The solutions we offer tend to focus on helping educators manage stress through self-care, better work-life balance, or increased resilience. While those strategies can be helpful, they place the responsibility for preventing burnout squarely on the individual.

Yet the supports available to educators play a significant role in whether stress remains manageable or accumulates over time. When we focus only on the individual, we lose the chance to examine the systems that can help prevent burnout in the first place.

The Best Time to Prevent Burnout Is Before It Starts

One of the biggest misconceptions about burnout is that it is simply another word for stress.

Stress is a normal part of any job, especially teaching. In contrast, burnout is what can happen when that stress goes unaddressed for too long. It shows up as emotional exhaustion, a loss of energy, and a diminished sense of purpose and accomplishment.

By the time a teacher reaches that point, recovery can be difficult. That’s why preventing burnout requires more than just helping educators manage stress. It requires building support systems that help them navigate challenges before they become overwhelming.

As leaders, we often focus on the more obvious causes of burnout: teacher workload, staffing shortages, and competing program or district priorities. These challenges are real, but they are not always within our immediate control. What we can control is the level of support we provide within our programs. And increasingly, research suggests that support may be one of the strongest protective factors against burnout.

When educators have access to meaningful professional learning, coaching, and high-quality instructional resources, they are less likely to feel like they are carrying the weight of implementation on their own.

Recent research from the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) commissioned by Teaching Strategies offers encouraging evidence that this approach works. When educators are supported through coaching, ongoing professional learning, and high-quality instructional resources, both teachers and children benefit¹.

What Teachers Need Most

Over the years, I’ve heard teachers express many versions of the same concern.

• “They keep piling more and more on me.”
• “I’m doing everything all the time.”
• “I’m not respected as a professional.”

Notice that none of these statements are about curriculum, assessment, or professional development.

They are about support and autonomy.

Teachers want to feel capable. They want to feel trusted. They want to know that when challenges arise, they have someone to help them think through solutions rather than simply being handed another task.

This is where coaching can make a powerful difference.

Coaching is often misunderstood as another form of training or evaluation. In reality, effective coaching is a supportive partnership. At its core is the belief that teachers are capable professionals who can solve problems, make decisions, and grow in their practice when given the right support.

A coach helps educators reflect, problem-solve, and identify next steps. Sometimes that means brainstorming strategies for a challenging classroom situation. Sometimes it means talking through a difficult family conversation. Sometimes it simply means having someone who listens deeply and asks the right question at the right time.

That kind of support matters more than many people realize.

In fact, educators in the NIEER study who had access to ongoing professional learning and coaching reported higher levels of energy and personal accomplishment and lower levels of fatigue than their peers¹.

When educators feel supported, they are more likely to feel successful in their work.

What Meaningful Support Looks Like

One of the biggest mistakes well-meaning programs make is treating professional development as an event rather than a process.

Too often, professional learning is concentrated into a pre-service week or a handful of in-service days. Teachers leave inspired and full of ideas, but without the ongoing support needed to turn those ideas into practice.

In my experience, teachers are most successful when professional learning is delivered in manageable, ongoing experiences throughout the year and paired with opportunities to reflect, practice, and receive support.

Interestingly, that’s exactly what the NIEER study found. Teachers who participated in ongoing professional learning supported by coaching demonstrated stronger outcomes than those who did not¹.

Programs looking to strengthen implementation and reduce burnout should consider building support systems that include

• professional learning throughout the year, not just during pre-service or in-service days;
• opportunities for teachers to help shape their own learning based on individual goals and needs;
• coaching that supports implementation between professional learning experiences; and
• aligned curriculum, assessment, and instructional resources that work together.

High-quality instructional resources play an important role in this work. When curriculum, assessment, professional learning, and coaching are aligned, educators spend less time trying to navigate disconnected systems and more time focusing on children.

These supports do more than just strengthen implementation. In the NIEER study, teachers who had access to this type of connected support system were 59% more likely to remain in their roles over three years¹.

Sustainable implementation requires sustainable support.

Supporting Teachers Supports Children

For educational leaders, investing in teacher support is often framed as a workforce decision. The NIEER findings suggest it is also an instructional decision.

Children in classrooms where educators received ongoing support demonstrated stronger growth across every developmental domain measured, including social–emotional development, cognitive development, language, literacy, and mathematics¹.

This should not be surprising. When educators feel supported, they are better positioned to focus on what matters most: building relationships, creating meaningful learning experiences, and responding to the unique needs of children.

The connection between educator well-being, implementation quality, and child outcomes is stronger than many people realize.

Teachers should not have to carry the work of implementation alone.

When leaders invest in ongoing professional learning, coaching, and high-quality instructional resources, they create systems that help educators feel confident, supported, and successful. The result is stronger retention, stronger implementation, and better outcomes for children.

Programs looking to strengthen these support systems don’t have to build them from scratch. Our Professional Development Teacher Membership and Coach Membership were designed to help programs provide ongoing professional learning and coaching support throughout the year, giving educators access to the resources, learning opportunities, and implementation support they need when they need it most.