CCollegeMatcher

Teaching Assistants, Special Education

US occupation · SOC 25-9043

Job titles people report: Assistant Instructor, Co-Teacher, Educational Assistant, Paraeducator, Paraprofessional (Para), SPED Aide (Special Education Aide), SPED Para (Special Education Paraprofessional), SPED TA (Special Education Teacher Assistant), TA (Teacher's Assistant), Teacher's Aide

Pay and outlook

Median annual wage, May 2025
$36,780
Half earn more, half earn less
Middle half earn
$31,060 – $45,360
25th to 75th percentile
People employed, May 2025
1,420,350
Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)
Projected change, 2025–35
-0.3%
Shrinking (below 0%)
Openings a year (projected)
176,200
New jobs plus replacing people who leave
Typical education to enter
Some college, no degree
BLS

BLS publishes one wage and employment figure for teaching assistants, except postsecondary combined (code 25-9045). The pay and employment figures above are for that whole group, not for teaching assistants, special education alone. So is the projection.

  • 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

Assist a preschool, elementary, middle, or secondary school teacher to provide academic, social, or life skills to students who have learning, emotional, or physical disabilities. Serve in a position for which a teacher has primary responsibility for the design and implementation of educational programs and services.

Main tasks

  • Provide assistance to students with special needs.
  • Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement.
  • Supervise students in classrooms, halls, cafeterias, school yards, and gymnasiums, or on field trips.
  • Provide students with disabilities with assistive devices, supportive technology, and assistance accessing facilities, such as restrooms.
  • Carry out therapeutic regimens, such as behavior modification and personal development programs, under the supervision of special education instructors, psychologists, or speech-language pathologists.
  • Tutor and assist children individually or in small groups to help them master assignments and to reinforce learning concepts presented by teachers.
  • Employ special educational strategies or techniques during instruction to improve the development of sensory- and perceptual-motor skills, language, cognition, or memory.
  • Enforce administration policies and rules governing students.

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

Getting in

Typical education to enter (BLS)
Some college, no degree
O*NET Job Zone 3
Medium preparation
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

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
  • Conventional: organising information, records and procedures
  • Artistic: creating, designing and self-expression

Fields of study that lead here

From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 7 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.

Psychology

  • Applied Behavior Analysis

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

Where many students take psychology

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.

Education

  • Education, General
  • Special Education and Teaching, General
  • Early Childhood Education and Teaching
  • Teacher Assistant/Aide
  • Teaching Assistants/Aides, Other

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.

Other fields

Our college matcher doesn't offer this field as a major, so we can't suggest colleges for it here.

Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences

  • Child Development

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