Special Education Teachers, Secondary School

Pay and outlook

Median annual wage, May 2025

$74,260

Half earn more, half earn less

Middle half earn

$60,180 – $93,730

25th to 75th percentile

People employed, May 2025

163,930

Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)

Projected change, 2025–35

-0.2%

Shrinking (below 0%)

Openings a year (projected)

10,400

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 secondary school 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

• Establish and enforce rules for behavior and policies and procedures to maintain order among students.
• Maintain accurate and complete student records, and prepare reports on children and activities, as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations.
• Confer with parents, administrators, testing specialists, social workers, or other professionals to develop individual educational plans (IEPs) for students' educational, physical, and social development.
• Employ special educational strategies and techniques during instruction to improve the development of sensory- and perceptual-motor skills, language, cognition, and memory.
• Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects, and communicate those objectives to students.
• Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities.
• Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification and positive reinforcement.
• Confer with parents or guardians, other teachers, counselors, and administrators to resolve students' behavioral and academic problems.

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.

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.

Related careers

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

• Special Education Teachers, Kindergarten

  $65,120 median · -0.4% projected

• Special Education Teachers, Elementary School

  $65,120 median · -0.4% projected

• Special Education Teachers, Middle School

  $66,810 median · -0.4% projected

• Special Education Teachers, Preschool

  $64,830 median · +2.4% projected

• Teaching Assistants, Special Education

  $36,780 median · -0.3% projected

• Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education

  $63,970 median · -0.4% projected