SC Teacher Exit Survey

This annual exit survey collects data from public PK–12 classroom teachers leaving their positions or the profession in South Carolina. It’s designed to offer state-level insights into teacher attrition, while also providing participating districts with meaningful and specific insights informing recruitment and retention practices. 

The survey has been administered by SC TEACHER since 2021 (at no cost to districts). Each year, more districts have chosen to participate, helping to build comprehensive data unique to South Carolina.

This survey is an opportunity for districts to learn about the specific working conditions affecting attrition within their schools, while also contributing to the collection of statewide data.

Districts (with a minimum of three participating teachers) who take part will receive a report with district-specific results—a helpful resource for understanding why teachers have opted not to renew their contracts. Districts are also invited to attend a webinar hosted by the SC TEACHER research team to unpack data interpretation and specific takeaways useful for district planning.

For districts that conduct their own exit surveys, participation in the SC Teacher Exit Survey provides an avenue for triangulating findings and impacting state-level policies around teacher recruitment and retention.

The 2026 SC Teacher Exit Survey will be open to exiting teachers in participating districts from May 11–June 19, 2026.

For questions or information about coordinating your district’s participation, please email SCTresults@mailbox.sc.edu.

Survey responses are confidential, but not anonymous. This is so SC TEACHER can share aggregated results with districts with a minimum of three teachers participating. 

To maintain the privacy of respondents, we work to ensure teachers can never be identified by their responses. Individual responses and any identifying data are kept confidential and not shared with school districts or the state. 

District-specific results are shared only in aggregate and with the district point of contact (most often the personnel administrator). SC TEACHER also collects results into a state-level report. None of this information can be traced back to the individual. 

Given that a district meets the minimum threshold of three teachers participating, district-specific survey results are confidentially shared with the district point of contact.

Each year, SC TEACHER produces a state-level report on exit survey findings using aggregated data. Through this report, collective data from districts help inform South Carolina policymakers’ decisions around teacher retention and recruitment efforts. 

For the 2026 survey administration, all South Carolina public school districts will receive invitations to participate via email on March 31. Districts that agree to participate will receive instructions on how to submit emails for teachers exiting their district.

Districts must agree to participate before SC TEACHER can administer the survey to exiting teachers. Teachers in participating districts will receive invitations to take the survey via their district emails.  

If you have any questions about participating, please email SCTresults@mailbox.sc.edu.

The SC Teacher Exit Survey is conducted by the South Carolina Teacher Education Advancement Consortium for Higher Education Research (SC TEACHER). SC TEACHER is a state-funded research consortium that administers, coordinates, and disseminates high-quality research on teacher recruitment, preparation, and retention to inform and assist districts in South Carolina.