APPLY NOW! Applications close on Friday, October 16.

Eight-session series: October 20, 2026 – February 23, 2027

This virtual community of practice is open to all states and territories.

Are you a leader in a school or school district who is concerned about staff well-being? Are you interested in identifying what is causing stress and burnout among school staff, and then developing a feasible and effective strategy to address it? Join us for this Community of Practice (COP), a facilitated series designed to help your team develop a concrete plan to strengthen school staff well-being.

We will be applying tools and resources from the Midwest Center for School Mental Health’s toolkit, Building the Conditions for Staff Well-Being: A Toolkit for Addressing the Root Causes of School Staff Stress and Burnout. Over our 8 sessions, we will be developing strategies to strengthen organizational readiness and leadership support, creating an effective design team to oversee this work, documenting staff experiences, exploring the root causes of staff stress and burnout, and launching a small pilot test of an evidence-based strategy to strengthen well-being. Participants will complete the series ready to develop a plan for a larger-scale effort to promote well-being in your school or district.

Overview
School staff stress and burnout have rapidly worsened in recent years, with growing concerns about workload, staffing shortages, student behavioral and mental health needs, and other factors. However, there are ways to effectively identify and address the underlying causes of staff stress. This learning community will engage in a process to understand staff experiences, conduct a root cause analysis to identify sources of stress, and pilot test strategies to reduce staff stress. Our focus is on changing organizational conditions that contribute to stress and burnout, rather than individual strategies for self-care or stress management.

Our approach is heavily grounded in human-centered design and implementation science, resulting in an approach that centers staff voice, addresses causes rather than symptoms, aligns with local contexts and feasibility, learns through testing and adaptation, promotes transparent communication, and builds the conditions for successful implementation and systems change.

Participants will engage in eight 1.5-hour biweekly facilitated sessions that blend community engagement, presentations, and peer learning. We encourage you to bring a small team of key players from your organization(including at least one school or district-level administrator), since you’ll be working with colleagues between sessions to gather input, test ideas, and build buy-in. This series builds from session to session, so please plan to have at least 2 team members in attendance at each session.

Structured assignments will be completed between sessions. Each team will work independently on their plan for their school or district, while learning alongside other organizations in the cohort. Attendees can expect 12 hours of live learning sessions and approximately 60-80 hours of outside-session work across four months of expert-led technical assistance through this series.

Series Schedule:
Tuesdays, noon–1:30 p.m. ET / 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m. CT
October 20: Setting the Stage
November 10: Building a Team
November 24: Gathering Staff Input
December 8: Gathering Staff Input, cont.
*Holiday Break*
January 12: Setting Priorities
January 26: Selecting Strategies
February 9: Developing a Pilot Plan
February 23: Planning for Next Steps

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Strengthen organizational conditions to promote success (such as readiness, leadership support, and a strong team)
• Collect staff input and prioritize the most significant causes of school staff stress and burnout
• Develop and launch a pilot test of a strategy designed to reduce stress and burnout
• Develop a roadmap for an organization-wide staff well-being initiative

CERTIFICATES:

Registrants who fully attend this event or training will receive a certificate of attendance via email within two weeks after the event or training. 

PRESENTERS: Cheryl Holm-Hansen, PhD, and Mark Sander, PsyD, Midwest Center for School Mental Health