Education Support Professionals: Supporting Our Own Through Peer Mentoring
NEA recognizes the vital role ESPs play in ensuring a great public school for every student. That’s why we work with affiliates to provide enhanced professional support through peer mentoring for ESPs at all stages of their career.
ESPs make up more than one third of today’s public education workforce, but often have inadequate professional development and workplace preparation and support. Formal programs where ESPs mentor ESPs can provide the high-quality, targeted, and specialized support that is vital for professional and student success.
Mentoring for ESPs, like the long-established mentoring relationships between new and experienced teachers, can ensure ESPs deal successfully with the growing complexity and increasing demands of education.
ESP peer mentoring is essential to:
- Support the development of personal and professional skills and knowledge.
- Ensure the ESP community has a greater voice in the workplace and more opportunities to build their own professional pathways.
- Recruit and retain high-quality support professionals in the education workforce.
- Contribute to the overall mission of student success.
Are you interested in establishing an ESP peer mentoring program?
This guide will get you started!
Enroll in our ESP Peer Mentoring Learning Path Course
ESPs: Supporting Our Own through Peer Mentoring is an online opportunity that guides affiliates and members through building a strong mentoring program for ESPs. This free learning path comprises four online courses that participants may take as an individual or with a team through NEA’s Professional Excellence Portal.
Do you have an active ESP mentoring program in your school district, university/college, local association, or state?
The NEA is happy to announce the launch of the ESP Mentoring NETWORK, a platform aimed at supporting and strengthening the growing community of ESP peer mentoring programs. By exchanging resources and information, we will accelerate collaboration, leading to continuous improvement and more successful and impactful mentoring programs over time. Our goal is also to increase the Association's growing understanding of the features of successful ESP mentoring programs, leading to better models and strategies to be shared with emerging mentoring programs nationwide. The core component of the NETWORK is the ESP Peer Mentoring Program REGISTRY, a detailed data collection of ESP peer mentoring programs around the country.
All active ESP mentoring programs, including programs in their first pilot program year, are invited to SUBMIT their ESP mentoring program information to be included in the REGISTRY. All data submitted for the REGISTRY will be shared with other NETWORK members.
Programs that SUBMIT by OCTOBER 13, 2025 (5:00 p.m. ET), will be entered into the ESP National Conference lottery.
Through the ESP National Conference lottery, registered programs are eligible to win two fully funded trips to the 2026 NEA ESP National Conference (Anaheim, CA, March 27-29, 2026).
- Only ESP members with active roles in your ESP mentoring program are eligible to attend the ESP Conference
- The state and local associations must approve both fully funded ESP members.
- The primary program contact will be contacted about the lottery results at the end of October 2025.
Who is eligible to be a member of the NETWORK?
- All program contacts listed in the REGISTRY
- 2025 NEA Blended Learning Cohort participants and 2026 NYSUT Blended Learning Cohort participants
- ESP State Staff Coordinators and other Association staff
- ESPs: Supporting Our Own through Peer Mentoring Learning Path Course learners who have completed all four courses.
Invitations will be emailed to those eligible to be NETWORK members in November 2025.
For additional information, please contact [email protected]
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