BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Their job is being a teacher, but it requires so many more roles.
"The role of the teacher is now the role as teacher, social worker, mom, dad, counselor, therapist. All of those things all rolled up in one," Mark Laurrie, the superintendent of Niagara Falls City Schools said.
But those teachers are feeling fatigued.
The National Education Association, the nation's largest teaching union, asked its three million members about their stress levels this past January.
90% said they are feeling burned out.
"I think it's a legitimate feeling that teachers and other staff members are experiencing. Administrators as well. It just seems like a hamster wheel of on and on and on with no off ramping," Laurrie said.
"It's not at all surprising that teachers are feeling that the work has gotten tougher because it has gotten tougher," Michael Cornell, the president of the Erie Niagara School Superintendent's Association and superintendent of Hamburg Central School District, said.
The survey said 55% of teachers plan to leave teaching sooner than they originally expected to.
86% of those surveyed said they have seen more teachers leaving the profession or retiring early since the start of the pandemic. 80% said that unfilled job openings have led to more work for those who remain.
"That they would even think about leaving something they're passionate about it's a sad moment when you think about people leaving something that they love," Betty Rosa, New York State's Commissioner of Education, said.
Cornell said he is helping teachers in his district with the burnout feeling as much as he can.
"What I told them was there's nothing I can do that will make this experience easier. But what we can do, and what I'm committing to, is I'm going to support the hell out of you when it gets hard," Cornell said.
Laurrie said the district is providing educators with trauma informed care, and he plans to add more resources for teachers in the near future.
