Best questions for teacher survey about student mental health support

Here are some of the best questions for a teacher survey about student mental health support, along with tips for building impactful surveys. You can easily generate conversational surveys on this topic with Specific in just seconds.

Best open-ended questions for a teacher survey about student mental health support

Open-ended questions invite deeper insights by letting teachers share experiences, concerns, and ideas in their own words. These are especially valuable when you want genuine stories or need to surface issues you might not have anticipated. Here are our top open-ended questions for teacher surveys about student mental health support:

1. What challenges do you face when supporting students' mental health in your classroom?

2. Can you describe a recent situation where you addressed a student’s mental health concern?

3. What resources or training would help you better support student mental health?

4. How do you recognize when a student may be struggling with their mental health?

5. What barriers prevent you from providing effective mental health support to students?

6. How do you communicate concerns about student mental health with parents or guardians?

7. What strategies have you found most effective in supporting students’ social and emotional well-being?

8. If you could recommend a change to current mental health support systems at your school, what would it be?

9. How does supporting student mental health impact your own well-being as a teacher?

10. Are there specific trends or issues in student mental health you’ve noticed in recent years?

Open-ended questions tap into the real, lived experience of teachers—crucial, especially when 69% of teachers frequently assist students processing emotions and discussing mental health concerns, and 74% help with personal matters beyond academics. This expanded role directly impacts teacher well-being and school culture. [1]

Top single-select multiple-choice questions for teacher surveys about student mental health support

Single-select multiple-choice questions are best when you want to quantify results or make it easy for teachers to respond quickly. They're also great icebreakers—sometimes giving simple options makes it easier for people to begin, and then you can follow up for deeper context if needed. Here are three strong examples tailored to teachers:

Question: How confident do you feel supporting students with mental health concerns?

• Very confident

• Somewhat confident

• Not very confident

• Not confident at all

Question: What is your most significant barrier to supporting student mental health?

• Lack of training

• Not enough time

• Insufficient resources

• Poor support from school leadership

• Other

Question: How often do you collaborate with mental health professionals at your school?

• Regularly (weekly)

• Occasionally (monthly)

• Rarely

• Never

When to followup with "why?" If a teacher selects "Not confident at all," or "Insufficient resources," it's valuable to trigger a follow-up—“Why do you feel this way?” or “Can you give an example?” These followups turn static data into actionable insight.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always include "Other" when your list might not cover every scenario. Teachers may face school-specific barriers you haven’t considered, and their responses can uncover blind spots for future surveys. Clever follow-up questions can reveal new themes and needs.

Using an NPS question for teacher surveys about student mental health support

NPS (Net Promoter Score) questions, while often used for measuring loyalty or recommendation, can give a quick sense of how likely teachers are to endorse the school's mental health support systems. For sensitive areas like mental health, an NPS-style question highlights overall satisfaction and provides a basis for targeted follow-ups. See how to automatically generate an NPS survey specific to this topic.

For example, “On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our school's student mental health support systems to a fellow teacher?” This not only quantifies sentiment but opens the door for precise follow-up questions tailored to detractors, passives, and promoters.

The power of follow-up questions

Truly meaningful teacher surveys don’t end with a single response. Automated, smart follow-up questions (like those described in our guide to automated followups) transform feedback into a real conversation.

Specific’s AI uses context-sensitive follow-ups to make sure we fully understand every response—asking for clarification, digging into key themes, and surfacing rich stories. This is crucial in mental health support, where 60% of teachers feel emotionally exhausted weekly and 65% are considering leaving the profession due to mental health challenges. A nuanced, real-time conversation helps grasp the support systems teachers really need. [2]

• Teacher: "We don't have enough resources."

• AI follow-up: "What kinds of resources do you feel are most lacking, and how would having them help your students?"

How many followups to ask? Generally, 2-3 well-targeted followups are enough. The key is tailoring them based on the respondent’s willingness to share. Specific lets you set these parameters, ensuring teachers aren’t overwhelmed but you still get all the details you need.

This makes it a conversational survey—turning what’s usually a dry feedback form into a dynamic, interactive experience that feels natural and respectful.

AI-powered survey analysis: Even with tons of open-ended, unstructured feedback, analyzing responses is a breeze using AI. Check out our guide to AI-powered response analysis—so you’ll never feel buried by messy data.

Automated, dynamic followups are a huge evolution from traditional survey forms—try building a survey with followups in Specific to experience just how much more actionable your results will be.

How to prompt ChatGPT to write better questions for teacher surveys about student mental health support

If you want AI help crafting your teacher survey, prompting matters. Start simple, then layer in specifics:

First, you can say:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Teacher survey about Student Mental Health Support.

But you’ll get far better results by adding context—describe your audience, the grade level, your goals, and the kinds of insights you need. For example:

I’m creating a conversational survey for middle and high school teachers. My goal is to understand their experiences supporting student mental health, barriers they face, and the additional resources they need to be more effective. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that could uncover useful stories and actionable feedback.

Once you have a rough set of questions, ask ChatGPT to sort them by theme:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

This organization makes it easy to select which topics matter most. If you like the “barriers and challenges” category, ask:

Generate 10 questions for barriers and challenges in student mental health support.

Iterating this way makes your AI-generated survey questions much more useful and on-point.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys stand apart from traditional forms—they mimic real dialogue, adapt to responses, and can probe deeper when answers are vague or insightful. With AI survey generators like Specific, you get a partner that builds, refines, and even edits surveys as you chat (see the AI survey editor in action).

Why use AI for teacher surveys? Teachers are busy. With over half of public schools reporting insufficient mental health staff and 87% of teachers losing sleep to stress, we need to respect their time and get clear, actionable feedback fast. [3] AI survey generators empower you to quickly validate questions, adapt to responses, and gather richer information—no research background required.

See our easy walkthrough on how to create a teacher survey about student mental health support using Specific’s conversational platform. The experience for both creator and respondent is streamlined and friendly, thanks to best-in-class conversational UX.

Whether you’re running a quick pulse check or digging deep into the evolving landscape of student well-being, Specific makes the entire feedback process smarter, more human, and truly actionable.

See this student mental health support survey example now

Start your survey in seconds and unlock real, nuanced feedback through engaging, conversational questions and smart AI-powered follow-ups—making every response count.