Is Your Teen Quiet Quitting School? Why the End of the Year Hits Hardest

Yahoo

09-05-2025

Prom, end-of-year exams, college tours, graduation parties — the list of things your teens have going on at this time of year is exhausting. We already know moms are struggling with 'Maycember,' the time of year that rivals December with how busy it is, but teens are also struggling at the end of the school year. And they may be turning to quiet quitting at school to cope with the pressures.
Quiet quitting is a term that first started circulating around the COVID-19 pandemic, in which employees stopped going the extra mile and just did the bare minimum to get by at work. That means no extra time, enthusiasm, or anything else for the job. Just show up, get the job done, and go home. Not quitting — but not doing anything above and beyond. Recently, teens have been doing the same at school.
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Francine Le, National Director of Education for Newport Healthcare, tells SheKnows that quiet quitting among teens 'refers to a phenomenon where students make a conscious decision to do the bare minimum when they may have previously been engaged and connected to their school experience.'
'This phrase highlights a subtle disconnection due to mental health issues, stress, academic pressures, lack of motivation and more,' she went on. It can look like sudden withdrawal from school activities, decreased participation, and declining academic performance.
'Students are re-evaluating what is important to them and are choosing to reduce their academic stress by 'quiet quitting' to safeguard and protect their mental health and well-being,' Le adds.
Teachers have noticed students doing this at school for the past couple years. In 2023, several came forward to share stories in the Teachers subreddit. One person explained students quiet quitting like this: 'There's simply no incentive to work hard anymore, college doesn't guarantee good jobs anymore so why work hard in high school if you're not going to college. Why even pass high school when most places are so starved for employees they'll take anyone. Or they're just delusional because they think they'll become a star on twitch or TikTok or something and working hard on biology homework is stupid.'
Others argued that even doing the 'bare minimum' would be a welcome upgrade from what they see in their classrooms. 'When people use the term 'quiet quitting' to me it means that they're referring to the people that do the bare minimum to pass by. To be [quite] honest that would be a vast improvement for many of my students,' one teacher wrote.
Unlike students who completely drop out or skip class, this could look like teens technically showing up to school but acting totally disengaged.
'I see quiet quitting as when a student is physically present but emotionally or mentally checked out,' Aja Chavez, executive director of Adolescent Services at Mission Prep Healthcare, tells SheKnows. 'They're doing just enough to get by but avoiding participation and often disengaging from anything that isn't strictly required. It's more of a quiet withdrawal. The student may still show up, but the spark or sense of connection to their learning is missing.'
Chavez says that since students returned to in-person classes after the pandemic, the quiet quitting trend has skyrocketed. 'Many students came back to school environments that didn't feel relevant or responsive to the emotional toll they had experienced,' she tells us. 'Combine that with increased screen time, burnout, and pressure from every direction, and it's not surprising that some students are pulling back quietly.'
Le agrees. She told us, 'Teens mentally check out of school when they do not feel a sense of belonging to their school or the motivation to participate in their own learning.'
'As a consequence of the pandemic and the evolution of the digital age we are in, teens are showing difficulty with self-esteem, isolation, and interpersonal skills,' she adds.
Mental health issues and 'intense' academic pressure, where students believe their future depends on the results of every test, grade, or extracurricular activity, contributes to this problem, according to Chavez.
'That pressure can lead to anxiety, perfectionism, and burnout,' she says. 'When that's paired with underlying mental health challenges, which many teens are facing right now, school starts to feel like an impossible mountain.'
Le says that untreated mental health issues, plus academic pressure that triggers anxiety and depression, work together to cause students to disengage from learning. 'A student may consciously lower their own expectations and stop exerting as much effort as a means to avoid 'failure,'' she explains. Le adds that teens without the proper support and tools to cope with mental health issues will 'not have the capacity to engage in their learning.'
Look for subtle changes in your teens to see if they might be falling into the quiet quitting trend.
Pulling back. 'You might notice a student who used to be engaged starting to participate less, stops turning in assignments, or pull back socially,' Chavez explains.
Declining grades and/or missed assignments.
Slipping attendance. Kids might skip more and more or ask to leave class early frequently.
Change in attitude. Chavez says a big red flag is a student who previously cared about their work begins to say things like, 'it doesn't matter' or 'I'm just tired.'
Withdrawal. 'Emotional withdrawal from school-related activities,' is a sign, according to Le.
'It's often more of a slow fade than a sudden drop-off,' Chavez adds.
Teens have been shirking their duties for decades. (When I was in high school, we used to say 'C's get degrees' to justify not studying harder for a test.) So how do parents know if this quiet quitting is something different?
'Teachers and parents can distinguish normal teen behaviors and disengagement from something more serious, like a mental health condition, by looking for persistent patterns,' Le recommends. If they are experiencing emotional withdrawal, mood changes, or academic decline that lasts for several weeks at a time and interferes with daily functioning, 'it may be a sign that there are deeper mental health issues at play rather than typical adolescent behavior,' says Le. 'At that point, it might be time to seek outside support.'
Of course, parents (and teachers) know the students best, so you are the expert if something feels off.
A student committing to quiet quitting isn't a lost cause. Parents and teachers can help them recover from this by taking time to connect with your teens.
'Students are more likely to re-engage when they feel seen, heard, and valued,' Chavez says. 'One-on-one check-ins, mentoring, or finding just one class or activity they can reconnect with can be a game-changer.'
Additionally, help your teens redirect from perfectionism to small wins. 'Sometimes it's about helping them rediscover their strengths and passions,' Chavez continues. 'And in some cases, connecting them with mental health support is a crucial piece of the puzzle.'
'It's important for parents and teachers to build trust and connection with their teens and students by having open and honest conversations, validating their feelings instead of trying to fix everything, celebrating small and big wins, using a growth mindset, and involving them in solutions,' Le says.
She suggests working with your student and their teachers to help the teen get back on track. 'Teens want the opportunity to do well at something and want to feel a sense of belonging to their school and community,' Le explains. 'If the teen lacks motivation despite attempts to re-engage in school or the activities they used to enjoy, it may be time to seek outside mental health support to determine what may be going on and how to best move forward.'
There is a mental health crisis happening in our country right now. One recent study by the CDC found that depression among U.S. teens and adults has increased 60% in the last decade, with young people ages 12-19 most likely to report current symptoms of depression.
A March 2025 study by the Pew Research Center found that teens ages 13-17 are facing many pressures at schools, with 71% of teen girls and 65% of teen boys admitting feeling 'a great deal or a fair amount of pressure to get good grades.' In SheKnows' own 'Be a Man' project that explored the lives of teen boys, we found that 55% of teens surveyed cited academics as their top source of stress.
Earlier this year, SheKnows hosted a live event with authors Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop and four teens from our Gen Z Council. One teen named Greta shared, 'I don't know if parents always understand the extent of the pressure we can be under throughout school. It really does feel like sometimes you have to be 'on' all the time.'
Greta added that she feels 'drained' after school and doesn't want to jump right into homework: 'I'm not gonna be able to put my best work forward, and I just think taking breaks is not having a bad work ethic, and I think it's OK to do that sometimes.'
Another teen named Santiago shared how stress can lower motivation. 'Stress can lead to a lack of motivation, which is a true killer of productivity. 'It kills the momentum that you have at the beginning of the year,' Santiago said. 'At the beginning of the year, you're fresh … and then stress just really slows you down.'
Chavez wants parents to really lean into how students are feeling, especially at the end of the year.
'I think it's important to note that quiet quitting in schools isn't about laziness or lack of ambition,' she notes. 'It's usually a sign that something underneath isn't working. If we approach students with curiosity instead of criticism, we can start to uncover what they really need and help them find their way back to feeling connected, supported, and capable again.'
Because it's still true that you 'don't have to bust your a– to pass a class,' as we used to say, but if your teen participating in quiet quitting is part of a deeper problem or a mental health issue, it's definitely worth a second look.Best of SheKnows
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