More than 250 teachers left the Alamance-Burlington school system to teach for another North Carolina public school system or at a public charter school – or simply left public education altogether – between March 2024 and March 2025, according to the latest “State of the Teaching Profession in North Carolina” report that DPI recently compiled for the General Assembly.
The report provides a snapshot of employment trends in public education, such as teacher retention rates and teaching vacancies, within the state’s 115 public school systems. A state law passed in 1997 requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to compile an annual report on teacher turnover, though it is now called the “Report on the State of the Teaching and School Administration Professions in North Carolina.”
DPI’s annual report on the teaching profession consists of four main components:
- State attrition: The number and percentage of teachers who left N.C. public schools altogether;
- Local (“LEA,” or local education agency) attrition: The combined number and percentage of teachers no longer employed in an N.C. public school system or who went to teach for another N.C. traditional public or public charter school;
- Mobility: The number and percentage of teachers who left to teach for another N.C. public school system or charter school;
- Recoupment: The number and percentage of teachers hired during the same reporting period, mitigating the net loss of teachers.
Out of a total of 1,397 teachers who had been employed in ABSS as of March 2024, 255 teachers had either left ABSS to work for another public school system, or had left public education altogether by March 2025, representing a “local attrition” rate of 18.3 percent.
[Story continues below ABSS’ 5-year record on teacher attrition rates.]
Of the 255 teachers who left ABSS, 114 left to teach for another N.C. public school system, for a mobility rate of 8.2 percent in 2024-25, DPI’s report shows.
Statewide, 4,005 (4.5 percent) out of a total of 90,105 teachers employed in March 2024 had left one school system to teach for another school system by March 2025, for a statewide mobility rate of 4.5 percent.
Of the 255 teachers who left ABSS, 141 teachers were no longer teaching for any N.C. public school or public charter school by March 2025, representing a “state attrition” rate of 10.1 percent for 2024-25, according to DPI’s annual report on the teaching profession.
The state attrition rate for ABSS mirrors the trend among all N.C. public school systems: 10.11 percent (or 9,107 out of 90,105) of N.C. teachers who had been employed in March 2024 were no longer employed in any N.C. public school a year later.
DPI recently eliminated the use of the term “turnover” from the annual report and now uses the terms “attrition” and “mobility” to describe teacher employment trends in N.C. public schools, according to an executive summary that accompanies the 2024-25 report.
DPI also cautions that, given the changes in how the department currently defines employment trends in public education, differences between 2015-16 and subsequent years “are not comparable and should not be attributed to” specific programs or policies.
Mobility
The mobility rate of 8.2 percent for ABSS was nearly double the state average mobility rate of 4.4 percent, as 4,005 teachers left their school systems to work for another N.C. public school system in 2024-25, according to DPI.
A recent addition to the state’s annual report tracks where teachers ended up after transferring to another public school system, as part of the mobility rate.
A majority (77 or 67.5 percent) of the 114 teachers who left ABSS to work for another N.C. public school system between March 2024 and March 2025 (i.e., in 2024-25) went to work for: Guilford County schools (28); K-12 public charter schools (24); Orange County schools (16); and Chapel Hill-Carrboro city schools (9).
The remaining 37 teachers (or 32.5 percent) who left ABSS to teach in another N.C. public school system went to public school systems in: Buncombe, Chatham, Durham, Edgecombe, Gaston, Hoke, Moore, and Wake counties, as well as a handful of other counties.
By comparison, the largest proportion of teachers who came to ABSS from other N.C. public school systems came from Guilford (25); Durham (6); and Orange (6) counties.
[Story continues below comparison between ABSS and other nearby school systems and state average.]
The attrition and mobility rates do not reflect teachers who moved into a non-instructional or an administrative role in 2024-25, DPI notes in its report.
Recoupment and vacancies
ABSS had a “recoupment” rate of 23.5 percent, meaning that the school system’s administrators filled 60 teaching vacancies in 2024-25. The recoupment rate for ABSS was in line with the state average recoupment rate of 23.9 percent, as N.C. public school systems filled 3,139 teaching vacancies during the same period.
However, ABSS had 137 teaching vacancies (a vacancy rate of 14.0 percent) by the 40th day of the 2024-25 school year, according to DPI. That section of the report lists ABSS as having 979 teaching positions; no reason is given for the discrepancy between the 979 teachers listed in that section of the report, versus the total of 1,397 ABSS teachers listed elsewhere in DPI’s report.
Statewide, all N.C. public school systems had a vacancy rate of 7.4 percent, meaning that a total of 6,721 teaching positions in N.C. public schools remained unfilled by the 40th day of the 2024-25 school year, according to DPI.
Similar to its vacancy trends for the previous, 2023-24 school year, ABSS had the largest number of open teaching positions in: K-5 core subjects (26); K-5 Exceptional Children’s, or EC, classes (21); middle school EC classes (15); high school EC classes (13); and middle school science (10) during 2024-25.
Reasons for leaving
The annual report on the teaching profession – which is separate from the biennial teacher working conditions survey, the latest of which was released in May 2026 – outlines four categories for why teachers quit teaching for an N.C. public school system in 2024-25.
The reasons that teachers gave for leaving in 2024-25 don’t delve into specifics such as county-funded supplements for teachers that vary from one school system to another.
The majority of the 141 teachers (73, or 51.8 percent) who left ABSS and quit working in N.C. public education in 2024-25 did so for personal reasons, including: disability; dissatisfaction with teaching; relocation; career change; family responsibilities; teaching in a different state or an N.C. private school; or retirement with reduced benefits.
Of those 141 teachers who left ABSS and quit working in public education, 26 (18.4 percent) teachers did so for “reasons initiated by” the school system, such as failure to maintain a state educator’s license; dismissal or resignation in lieu of dismissal; and/or non-renewal of a probationary contract.
Another 25 (17.7 percent) of teachers who quit working for ABSS and left public education did so for “reasons beyond” such as: death; expiration of a Visiting International Faculty term; military deployment; or retirement with full benefits. Another 17 teachers (12.1 percent) who left ABSS and stopped working in N.C. public education in 2024-25 simply resigned, according to DPI.
The reasons for leaving are self-reported by teachers during exit interviews, surveys, and/or through other school human resource data collection methods, DPI notes in its report. The latest annual report does not reflect the number of teachers who were granted a leave of absence during 2024-25.
The “State of the Teaching Profession in North Carolina” report for 2024-25 has neither been presented to nor discussed by the local school board since its release this spring.
