The 2025 Virginia School Survey of Climate and Working Conditions provides a statewide perspective on the experiences of educators in elementary and middle schools and offers timely insight into conditions that influence teaching, learning, and school climate across the Commonwealth. From January to February 2025, the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) and the Virginia Department of Education (the Department) jointly administered the 2025 Virginia School Survey of Climate and Working Conditions to classroom instructors and staff in Virginia public schools serving grades Pre-Kindergarten through 8. Over 35,700 licensed educators from all 131 school divisions representing more than 1,300 schools responded to the survey.

The Virginia School Survey of Climate and Working Conditions represents the continued partnership that meets DCJS’s legislative mandate to conduct a secondary school climate survey and the Department’s legislative mandate to conduct a working conditions survey of all licensed school personnel. The Virginia School Survey of Climate and Working Conditions alternates annually between surveying elementary/middle and high school classroom teachers. As a result, year-to-year comparisons should only be made between alternating years (e.g., 2023 and 2025), to ensure consistency in the respondent population and the comparability of results.

The 2025 survey results indicate that teachers reported positive perceptions of overall climate and working conditions. The data indicated that there was a seven percent increase in teachers who agreed or strongly agreed that overall, their school was a good place to work and learn since 2023 (up from 69.8 percent to 75 percent). The 2025 results showed promising improvement in retention from the 2023 survey. According to the 2025 survey results, there was a nearly six percent increase of teachers who indicated they intended to continue teaching at their current school (from 77.8 percent to 82.5).

The 2025 teacher survey results reflect continued strengths in key areas of school climate and working conditions, with particularly high ratings for collegiality, physical environment, student-adult relationships, rigorous instruction, engaging with families, and school leadership, indicating that teachers perceived their schools as supportive and effective environments for both teaching and learning. Most indicators remained stable or improved compared to 2023 demonstrating a continued positive trajectory in overall school climate and teacher satisfaction.

While the survey findings are largely positive, a few areas emerged where additional support may be needed. Demands on teachers’ time received the lowest average rating, reflecting ongoing concerns about workload and time management. Measures such as teacher respect, professional growth opportunities, and teacher autonomy received relatively lower scores, highlighting opportunities for continued focus on teacher empowerment and professional learning. The responses for these areas have been made available in the Technical Appendix.

Looking ahead, DCJS and the Department will be co-administering the Virginia School Survey of Climate and Working Conditions during the 2025-2026 school year, focusing on school climate and working conditions among high schools serving grades 9 through 12.