Last updated: October 19, 2026. Forte publishes this guide, and Forte is one of the options compared below.
- Most of what gets sold to schools as faculty support isn't Mental Fitness. Meditation apps are self-guided content, EAPs are short-term counseling for when something goes wrong, and clinical platforms treat mental health conditions.
- Forte is the only Mental Fitness platform in this guide. Every faculty member gets their own Forte Coach, a real person outside school, plus short exercises between calls.
- Retention research points to one thing over and over: people stay where they feel cared for. A Coach makes that care personal for every teacher, not just the ones whose classrooms are near your office. Forte isn't therapy, so pair it with your EAP or health plan for clinical care.
This guide is for whoever decides how a private school takes care of its people: the head of school, the assistant head, the business office, the HR director, the board.
Your people take care of everyone else. Who takes care of them?
How big is the teacher retention problem at private schools?
Bigger than many heads of school expect.
The most recent federal data comes from the National Center for Education Statistics. Among private school teachers who were teaching in 2020–21, 82% stayed at the same school the next year, 6% moved to a different school, and 12% left the teaching profession. In public schools, 8% left teaching (NCES, 2023).
The early years are the riskiest. Among private school teachers with three or fewer years of experience, only 74% stayed at their school. 11% moved, and 15% left teaching altogether. And when private school teachers move, they don't always move to another private school: 46% of private school movers went to a public school (NCES, 2023).
The pressure hasn't eased much since. In RAND's 2026 State of the American Teacher survey, 18% of public school teachers said they were likely to leave their job by the end of the school year, and only 23% planned to stay in teaching as long as they were able (RAND, 2026). Your faculty are recruited from, and compared against, that same market.
What does faculty turnover cost a private school?
Every departure starts the same chain: recruiting, interviewing, hiring, onboarding and getting someone new up to speed with your students and families.
The Learning Policy Institute estimates that teacher turnover can cost "nearly $25,000 per teacher in large districts, on average," counting separation, recruiting, hiring and training (Learning Policy Institute, 2024). That figure comes from public school districts, and costs at your school will differ. But the work of replacing a teacher is the same everywhere, and private schools carry one cost districts don't: families who chose your school partly because of the teachers in it.
The cost you can't put in a spreadsheet is the one heads of school feel most. A beloved teacher leaves in June, and the parent questions start in August.
Why do good teachers leave?
Pay matters, and you can't solve it with a coaching benefit. But salary is rarely the whole story. Among public and private school teachers who chose to leave teaching in 2021–22, only 9% said their most important reason was wanting or needing a higher salary. More, 15%, named personal life reasons such as health, childcare or caring for family (NCES, 2023).
Life outside school shapes who stays. So does what sits underneath most departures, which is harder to measure. A teacher who stops feeling seen. A hard year at home that nobody at school knew about. A slow drift that shows up first as a closed door and later as a resignation letter.
Gallup's research shows how much that sense of being cared for matters. As of May 2026, only one in five U.S. employees strongly agreed that their organization cares about their overall wellbeing. Those who did were 54% less likely to be job hunting and 3.2 times less likely to report frequent burnout (Gallup, 2026).
You probably care a great deal about your faculty. The question is whether each of them can feel it. And some things never get said at work, no matter how open your door is.
12% of private school teachers left the profession in a single year. Among new teachers, it was 15%. People stay where they feel cared for.
What faculty wellbeing support helps private schools retain teachers?
If retention is the goal, five things matter most:
- A real person for every teacher. Not a library and not a chatbot. Someone who learns their story and remembers it next time.
- Help before the resignation letter. Most of your faculty aren't in crisis. Support has to reach them in the ordinary hard weeks.
- Real privacy. Teachers won't say "I'm thinking about leaving" to anyone connected to the school.
- Something people will use. A benefit only helps the faculty who open it.
- Insight you can act on, without crossing a line. School-wide trends, never individual details.
Wellness apps, EAPs, clinical care or Mental Fitness: which is which?
Every faculty support option falls into one of four groups. Only one of them is Mental Fitness.
- Meditation and self-guided apps (Headspace, Calm). Audio and video content people use on their own. Low cost and easy to start, but no person on the other end. These are content libraries, not Mental Fitness.
- Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). A benefit that usually comes with your health plan or a separate provider, offering short-term counseling and referrals, mostly used when something has gone wrong. EAPs are crisis and referral support, not Mental Fitness.
- Clinical mental health platforms (Spring Health, Lyra Health, Modern Health). Therapy, psychiatry and coaching from licensed providers, built to treat mental health conditions. These are clinical care, not Mental Fitness.
- Mental Fitness (Forte). Proactive training for everyday life with a dedicated human Coach, plus short exercises in between. It's built for the ordinary hard weeks, before they turn into a crisis or a resignation. It isn't therapy.
If the line between Mental Fitness and mental health feels fuzzy, our guide to Mental Fitness vs. mental health explains the difference.
Comparison at a glance
| Option | Category | Who your faculty talk to | What your school sees | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forte | Mental Fitness (the only one in this guide) | Their own Forte Coach, by phone, as early as the next day | Anonymized, school-wide trends; never what any one person said | Schools that want every teacher to have a real person outside school, long before a resignation |
| Headspace | Meditation and self-guided app | No one; self-guided content | Nothing for the free educator offer, since teachers sign up on their own | Teachers who'll practice meditation on their own; free for U.S. K-12 educators and school staff |
| Calm | Meditation and self-guided app | No one; self-guided content | Team usage through Calm's admin portal | Schools that want a sleep and relaxation library; free teacher subscriptions have ended |
| Your EAP | Crisis and referral support | A counselor through the EAP provider, usually for a limited number of sessions | Varies by provider; ask for a sample report | Short-term counseling and referrals when something has gone wrong |
| Spring Health, Lyra Health, Modern Health | Clinical mental health platforms | Licensed therapists, psychiatric providers and coaches | Varies by vendor; ask for a sample report | Schools that need broad therapy and psychiatry coverage |
Scroll the table sideways on a phone. Competitor details come from each company's own public pages as of October 2026.
Forte: the Mental Fitness option
What it is. Forte is a Mental Fitness platform. Every member of your faculty gets their own Forte Coach, a real person outside work who's with them for all of it, plus short exercises in the Forte app between calls. It isn't a meditation app, an EAP or AI coaching, and it isn't therapy.
Why it fits a retention goal. Teachers rarely leave over one bad day. They leave after a long stretch where nobody asked. Forte puts someone in that stretch with them. Everything lives in one app. They pick a time, their Coach calls them, and exercises keep them growing between calls. The conversation covers whatever is going on, at school and at home, so the hard year doesn't stay hidden until June.
What's included.
- A dedicated Coach. Members can keep the same Coach or switch any time, and Forte Coaches come from backgrounds that include ICF-certified coaching, counseling, social work and pastoral care (Forte Coaches).
- Sessions by phone. Members can connect with their Coach as early as the next day (how Forte works).
- Short exercises in the app, about 5 to 10 minutes, between Sessions.
- Confidentiality. Calls are never recorded, Forte keeps no medical records, and your school sees only anonymized, school-wide trends, never what any one person said.
- A customized launch plan and kickoff, with Forte's team closely involved through the first 90 days (Forte for schools).
Here's how one special education teacher and Forte Member put it on Forte's education page: "My Coach helps talk through my concerns to feel more grounded."
Things to consider. Forte isn't clinical care. If a faculty member needs therapy or psychiatry, their Coach helps them find the right resource, and your EAP or health plan covers that part. Forte also isn't a substitute for fair pay or a reasonable workload. Pricing is set for each school, so it takes a short demo rather than a checkout page.
Headspace
What it is. A meditation and self-guided app. Headspace offers "free Headspace access to K-12 educators and school staff across the U.S." (Headspace). Schools can also buy Headspace for their organization.
Who it's best for. Teachers who already like meditation and will use an app on their own.
Things to consider. There's no person on the other end, and a free app your teachers can already get on their own is hard to present as something your school did for them. It's a useful extra, but it isn't Mental Fitness.
Calm
What it is. A meditation, sleep and relaxation app. Calm's help center says, "We are no longer accepting applications for free Calm Premium subscriptions for educators." It now offers free downloadable classroom guides and a self-care guide for teachers, and points schools wanting staff access to Calm for Business (Calm).
Who it's best for. Schools that want a sleep and relaxation library for faculty.
Things to consider. Like Headspace, it's self-guided. There's no person to talk to, and it isn't Mental Fitness.
Your EAP
What it is. Many private schools already have an Employee Assistance Program through their health plan or a separate provider. It typically offers a phone line, a limited number of short-term counseling sessions and referrals.
Who it's best for. Faculty facing a specific problem who need short-term counseling or a referral.
Things to consider. An EAP is built for when something has gone wrong, and it only helps the people who call it. Keep it. It does a real job. But it isn't designed to be with a teacher through a long, ordinary hard year, which is when retention is won or lost. It isn't Mental Fitness.
Clinical mental health platforms: Spring Health, Lyra Health, Modern Health
What they are. Workplace mental health benefits built around clinical care. Spring Health offers therapy, psychiatry and medication management, plus coaching and self-guided tools (Spring Health). Lyra Health offers therapy, coaching, psychiatry and specialty care (Lyra Health). Modern Health covers self-guided tools, coaching and clinical care (Modern Health).
Who they're best for. Schools that need broad therapy and psychiatry coverage, often as an EAP replacement.
Things to consider. Clinical depth is their strength. If most of your faculty are stretched rather than unwell, you may pay for coverage many won't use. None publish pricing, so each takes a sales conversation. These are clinical platforms, not Mental Fitness.
How should a head of school choose?
Ask every vendor these six questions. Then ask yourself one more: would you use it? When the leader goes first, everyone follows.
- Who will my faculty talk to? A person, an AI or a content library? Each is a different kind of help.
- Is it Mental Fitness, therapy or crisis support? Ask what happens for a teacher who's quietly thinking about leaving.
- Is the person they talk to outside my school? Nobody says "I'm thinking about leaving" to someone connected to their boss.
- What will it look like in January, not just at launch? Ask who keeps people engaged after the kickoff.
- What exactly will I see? School-wide trends are fine. Anything about an individual isn't.
- Who runs it? Find out who handles launch and outreach, so it doesn't land on your business office.
For more on what teachers are carrying, see our guide to Mental Fitness for teachers. Running a boarding school? See our guide to supporting boarding school staff. And if someone on your faculty tells you they're not okay, here's what to say in the first minute.
How do you make every teacher feel cared for?
We know you care, but you can't sit beside every one of your people. Some things never get said at work, and those are often the things that decide who's back in August.
That's why Forte gives every one of your people their own Forte Coach, a real person outside work who's with them for all of it, the hard weeks and the good ones.
You become a place where everyone has someone in their corner. So your people feel as cared for as the people they care for.
Before you choose anything for your faculty, give yourself five days. Five Days to Train Within is a free gift for you: five short Mental Fitness practices to slow down, notice what matters, and come back to yourself. Then pass the ones you love along to your teachers. Start your five days
Put a Coach in their corner. Your people take care of everyone else. Who takes care of them? Forte gives every one of your people their own Coach, a real person outside work who's with them for all of it. So they feel as cared for as the people they care for. Book a demo to see what it looks like for your school. Book a demo
Not ready for a demo? Take the free team Mental Fitness Scan.