81% of American teachers describe student behavior as a problem: How it's driving many out of the profession

Classrooms are supposed to be places of inquiry, teamwork, and development. More and more, they're becoming war zones in which instructors have to fight to deliver instruction while containing rages, aggression, and defiance. In classrooms all over America, teachers sound the alarm that student behavior has insidiously become the public schools' number one crisis — even surpassing compensation as their greatest concern.

A national survey conducted by the National Education Association (NEA) in 2024, responding to nearly 3,000 teachers and education support professionals, reported that four out of five educators now consider student behavior a "serious problem." For 81% of them, misconduct and acting-out are no longer occasional disruptions — they are everyday realities structuring how learning happens.

An increasing burden on educators

The implications are stark. The RAND Corporation documented last year that 44% of teachers identify student behaviour as their main source of job stress, while Pew Research calculated that 80% of teachers encounter behavioural issues at least several times a week. Over half deal with them every single day.

Teacher surveys across Idaho to Iowa to Rhode Island are saying the same thing: Whether it's disrespect, verbal tirades, or physical outbursts, the cost is personal as well as professional. Delaware teachers, for instance, miss an average of seven hours of class time per month to behavioral crises, as measured by a 2024 DSEA survey. Middle school teachers report losing nearly ten. “We’re at a crisis point in public education that’s only going to get worse —until administrators, school boards, and state legislators take corrective action,” warns Stephanie Ingram, President of the Delaware State Education Association.

The shortage of teachers nationwide is no longer just about salaries or long hours, it is about classrooms becoming unsafe, exhausting spaces to work in.

Burnout in real time

For teachers in the trenches, the crisis is immediate. In Connecticut, teacher Elsa Batista had no equivocation: "Teaching has become mentally, emotionally, and physically draining. We are strong, resilient, and imaginative, but we need support. Right now, that's not occurring, and we cannot lose more teachers", reports neaToday.

That sentiment is echoed elsewhere. In Rhode Island, 74% of teachers surveyed reported students acting out, and 40% said student violence, towards peers and staff, has increased. Nationally, nearly 70% of teachers say they have experienced verbal abuse from students, with one in five enduring such treatment multiple times a month.

Searching for solutions

Though school cellphone bans have been welcome, teachers say piecemeal solutions won't cut it. Solutions teachers demand are straightforward and uniform: Reduced class sizes, more support from administrators, genuine parental engagement, additional paraprofessionals, and mental health professionals who have the ability to actually address student needs.

As Joslyn DeLancey, Connecticut Education Association Vice President, asserts: "We have to make an investment in public education. It is the single most important investment we can make," as quoted by neaToday.

Lessons for students, and the system

For young people, the crisis today isn't necessarily about more rules or punishment. The truth is more nuanced: The increasing mental health challenges, absence of support systems, and lingering specter of pandemic-era learning loss are reconfiguring the ways in which young people engage in school. Behind each meltdown is a student struggling to keep up, frequently without access to tools that might assist.

But unless the policymakers, parents, and administrators move with determination, the struggle will keep on paying for all: Lost instructional time for students, rising anxiety for educators, and a flight from a profession already strained to its limit.

The lesson is straightforward. In order to restore classrooms as places of learning and growth, US needs to meet a reality its own teachers are already expressing: The children are not alright, and neither are their educators.