During a February 2022 interview with Terry Gross on the National Public Radio program "Fresh Air (1975)," Quinta Brunson said that when the show was an unexpected ratings and critics' hit right away, she and the rest of the producers decided to take some of the money that had been budgeted for advertising and other marketing and use it instead to buy supplies for real teachers.
Quinta Brunson based the series on her mother's experiences as an elementary school teacher in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
On 25 May 2022, Quinta Brunson refused to make a school shooting episode of Abbott Elementary because "people are that deeply removed from demanding more of the politicians they elected and are instead demanding entertainment."
Abbott Elementary is named after Joyce Abbott, one of Brunson's elementary school teachers.