Reports & Research
VOICES OF HR REPORT
What Superintendents, Funders, and State Leaders Need to Know to Ensure Great Teaching for Every Student Daily
Every big challenge your system is navigating runs through your HR & Talent team.
K–12 HR and Talent leaders are responsible for the workforce behind every classroom, yet new USHCA research finds many are being asked to navigate teacher shortages, retention, workforce planning, and AI without the capacity, preparation, or support the work requires.
Voices of HR 2026 draws on a national survey of 103 K–12 HR and Talent leaders and focus groups with more than 60 practitioners to examine an often-overlooked part of the educator workforce challenge, and what superintendents, funders, state leaders, and school systems can do about it.
What the research found
USHCA’s Voices of HR 2026 research points to a critical challenge facing the K–12 educator workforce: HR and Talent leaders are increasingly responsible for solving complex staffing and workforce challenges, but many lack the capacity, preparation, and organizational support to lead this work strategically.
- HR and Talent teams have limited capacity for strategic workforce planning. Only 4% of HR and Talent Chiefs report having meaningful capacity for strategic work, while 82% say they are overwhelmed or stretched thin.
- HR and Talent leaders’ work impacts the student experience. Teacher vacancies and turnover directly shape what students experience in the classroom.
- School systems face an HR leadership pipeline challenge. Only 15% report having a well-developed succession pipeline for their top HR and Talent role.
- AI is creating a new leadership imperative. Only 24% of K–12 HR and Talent leaders report being ready to guide system-wide AI adoption, while AI training is the most requested professional development topic among respondents.
What this means for superintendents, funders, and state leaders
Ensuring great teaching for every student daily requires more than filling vacancies. It requires school systems to build the human capital infrastructure needed to recruit earlier, retain effective educators, develop future leaders, and anticipate changing workforce needs.
- Every big challenge your system is navigating - declining enrollment and budgets, AI, redesigning roles, rising student needs - requires a ready HR & Talent team. And right now, only 4% of these leaders feel they have time for strategic work.
- What HR & Talent does shows up in the classroom as a prepared teacher who stays, a rotating substitute, or an empty desk. No child learns well from a revolving door of adults.
- Strengthen your HR & Talent team, and you can change what students experience across your system, every day. Few education investments reach so many students through so few people.
The findings raise an important question for education leaders: Are the people responsible for building and sustaining the educator workforce being given the capacity, tools, development, and authority they need to succeed?
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