Career
Special education teachers, secondary school
Teach high schoolers with disabilities.
$74,260
Median pay
-0.2%
Job growth, 2025–35
10,400
Openings a year
Bachelor's degree
Typical education
4 years
Typical time after high school
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job do
- 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.
The outlook
How the forecast changed this year
The deeper question
What kind of person does this path ask you to become?
What this work centers on
O*NET interest profile, scored 1–7.
The work
Do you want most of your days spent on people & care, then ideas & analysis?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Establish and enforce rules for behavior and policies and procedures to maintain order among students.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Learning Strategies, Instructing, Reading Comprehension, Speaking.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
4 years of education after high school (bachelor's degree), for a median of $74,260 a year and 10,400 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- Special EducationSee the degree →
- Special Education and Teaching, GeneralCIP 13.1001
- Education/Teaching of Individuals with Hearing Impairments Including DeafnessCIP 13.1003
- Education/Teaching of Individuals with Emotional DisturbancesCIP 13.1005
- Education/Teaching of Individuals with Intellectual DisabilitiesCIP 13.1006
- Education/Teaching of Individuals with Multiple DisabilitiesCIP 13.1007
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Special Education Teachers, Kindergarten
- Special Education Teachers, Elementary School
- Special Education Teachers, Middle School$66,810 · -0.4%
- Special Education Teachers, Preschool$64,830 · +2.4%
- Teaching Assistants, Special Education
Ask anything about this career.
“Would this make sense if I don't want to sit at a desk all day?” Answers will come from the sources on this page, with citations. Coming soon.
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Sources
- BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34 (archived), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), National Center for O*NET Development / U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 Crosswalk, NCES and BLS. Retrieved 2026-10-01.