This paper examines the impact of working in low socioeconomic status (SES) school districts on the depressive tendencies of teachers. While previous research has focused on school attributes and teacher attributes in relation to teacher mental health issues, the crucial influence of the socioeconomic background of the school district on teacher mental well-being has not been adequately addressed due to constraints in data availability. This paper addresses this gap by utilizing secondary data from public statistics to calculate proxies for school district SES and combines this with a survey on teacher depressive tendencies to examine the causal mechanisms between the two. The results indicate that working in low SES school districts increases teachers' depressive tendencies and that this effect persists in the long term, regardless of the conditions at the subsequent year's school (lasting at least one year). Furthermore, continued employment in low SES school districts increases the likelihood of depressive tendencies by approximately four times. Transferring to a school in a higher SES district in the second-year shows promise in alleviating depressive tendencies. This study demonstrates the potential of using public statistics to accomplish surveys that were previously challenging to conduct, highlighting the importance of considering the socioeconomic context of school districts in understanding teacher mental health.
