RechargED Educator

Centering educator wellness through leadership voice, meaningful resources, and statewide collaboration.

Educator Wellness is Essential

The ED&D team believes that educator wellness is not optional, it is essential to sustaining effective leadership, healthy systems, and thriving school communities. Educational leaders navigate complex and often competing demands, balancing instructional priorities, compliance requirements, student needs, and the well-being of their staff. Supporting those leaders begins with creating space to acknowledge challenges, share experiences, and center wellness as a core leadership practice.

Valuing Educator Wellness Through Leadership Voice

One way ED&D advances this work is by intentionally elevating the voices of educational leaders. Through storytelling, reflection, and dialogue, we highlight how leaders across California are prioritizing wellness, building supportive cultures, and modeling healthy, sustainable leadership. These perspectives help normalize conversations around stress, burnout, and balance, while also offering practical insights grounded in real-world experience. 

The commitment is reflected in past and current ED&D podcast episodes, where educational leaders speak candidly about the role of wellness in leadership, the impact of school climate on adult well-being, and strategies for fostering resilient organizations. 

Feature episodes include:

Together, these conversations serve as both affirmation and inspiration, reinforcing the idea that caring for educators is foundational to student success and system-wide improvement.

SDCOE Mental Health & Wellness Resources for Educators

Supporting educator well-being is essential year-round. While teaching and leading in education can be deeply rewarding, it also involves sustained stress, emotional labor, and moments of burnout. To help educators care for themselves as they care for others, SDCOE’s Mental Health and Wellness Team has curated a collection of practical, research-informed resources focused on mental health, resilience, and renewal. 

This resource hub offers strategies to support mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Whether educators are  seeking quick practices to integrate into the workday or deeper supports to navigate ongoing stress, these resources are designed to meet educators where they are.

Supporting Staff Wellness Across California Schools

The California Safe and Supportive Schools (CSSS) initiative advances educator and staff wellness through statewide partnerships, research-informed practices, and accessible professional learning. 

Through Project Cal-Well, CSSS supports the development of sustainable school-based mental health systems that strengthen school climate and expand access to mental health resources for students, staff, and families.

Complementing this work, Stronger Connections offers Wellness Mini-Sessions, which are brief, expert-led virtual sessions that provide practical, evidence-based strategies to support adult well-being, stress regulation, and resilience in educational settings.

Together with the California Center for School Climate, these efforts promote a holistic approach to school climate that recognizes staff wellness as a foundation to safe, supportive, and thriving school communities.

Advancing Wellness: A Leadership Imperative

Educator wellness is a shared responsibility and a leadership imperative. By uplifting leadership voices, expanding access to meaningful resources, and strengthening systems that prioritize adult well-being, ED&D and its partners are helping create conditions where educators can thrive. When leaders are supported, schools are stronger, and educator wellness is centered, students, families, and communities benefit.

Barby Castro