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Special Education Teachers, Preschool

US occupation · SOC 25-2051

Job titles people report: Early Childhood Special Education Teacher (ECSE Teacher), Early Intervention Teacher, Exceptional Student Education Teacher (ESE Teacher), Preschool SPED Teacher (Preschool Special Education Teacher), Profound Mental Handicaps SPED Teacher (Profound Mental Handicaps Special Education Teacher), Severe Mental Handicaps SPED Teacher (Severe Mental Handicaps Special Education Teacher), Special Education Resource Teacher, Special Education Teacher, Special Needs Teacher, SPED Preschool Teacher (Special Education Preschool Teacher)

Pay and outlook

Median annual wage, May 2025
$64,830
Half earn more, half earn less
Middle half earn
$52,210 – $91,660
25th to 75th percentile
People employed, May 2025
29,510
Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)
Projected change, 2025–35
+2.4%
Growing slower than all jobs (0% to under 3.5%)
Openings a year (projected)
2,000
New jobs plus replacing people who leave
Typical education to enter
Bachelor's degree
BLS
  • All figures are for the United States as a whole. Pay varies a lot by state and city.
  • Wages are for everyone working in the occupation in May 2025, at every career stage. They are not starting salaries or figures for new graduates.
  • Growth and openings are BLS projections for 2025–35. They are estimates, not promises. Openings include jobs that open up when people retire or change occupation, not just new jobs.

What the work involves

Teach academic, social, and life skills to preschool-aged students with learning, emotional, or physical disabilities. Includes teachers who specialize and work with students who are blind or have visual impairments; students who are deaf or have hearing impairments; and students with intellectual disabilities.

Main tasks

  • Develop or implement strategies to meet the needs of students with a variety of disabilities.
  • Communicate nonverbally with children to provide them with comfort, encouragement, or positive reinforcement.
  • Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by laws, district policies, or administrative regulations.
  • Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement.
  • Attend to children's basic needs by feeding them, dressing them, or changing their diapers.
  • Teach basic skills, such as color, shape, number and letter recognition, personal hygiene, or social skills, to preschool students with special needs.
  • Develop individual educational plans (IEPs) designed to promote students' educational, physical, or social development.
  • Prepare classrooms with a variety of materials or resources for children to explore, manipulate, or use in learning activities or imaginative play.

Description and tasks from the O*NET® 31.0 Database.

Getting in

Typical education to enter (BLS)
Bachelor's degree
O*NET Job Zone 4
Considerable preparation
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Interests it suits

The strongest of the six O*NET interest types for this occupation, highest first. The short glosses are ours.

  • Social: helping, teaching and caring for people
  • Artistic: creating, designing and self-expression
  • Investigative: research, analysis and solving problems with ideas

Fields of study that lead here

From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 13 programmes to this occupation. A link means the programme prepares people for this kind of work. It doesn't mean the programme is required, or that it's the only route.

Education

  • Special Education and Teaching, General
  • Education/Teaching of Individuals with Hearing Impairments Including Deafness
  • Education/Teaching of Individuals with Emotional Disturbances
  • Education/Teaching of Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities
  • Education/Teaching of Individuals with Multiple Disabilities
  • Education/Teaching of Individuals with Orthopedic and Other Physical Health Impairments
  • Education/Teaching of Individuals with Vision Impairments Including Blindness
  • Education/Teaching of Individuals with Specific Learning Disabilities
5 more programmes
  • Education/Teaching of Individuals with Speech or Language Impairments
  • Education/Teaching of Individuals with Autism
  • Education/Teaching of Individuals Who are Developmentally Delayed
  • Education/Teaching of Individuals in Early Childhood Special Education Programs
  • Education/Teaching of Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injuries

Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Education at the Major step.

Where many students take education

Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.

Related careers

Related occupations from the O*NET database, in its order.

← All careers

Sources

This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. CollegeMatcher has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET 31.0 Database · CC BY 4.0

Changes: we show the core tasks in the O*NET database with the highest importance ratings (up to eight, in that order), the top three O*NET interest types by score, and shortened Job Zone names. Titles, descriptions and task text are unchanged.

Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Projections, typical entry education and training: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–35. Fields of study: NCES and BLS CIP 2020–SOC 2018 Crosswalk. All public domain. OEWS · Employment Projections · CIP–SOC crosswalk