Special Education Teachers, Middle School
Teach academic, social, and life skills to middle 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.
- Median pay
- $66,810
- Doing it now
- 94,800
- By 2035
- Down 0.4%
- Usually needs
- Bachelor's degree
a year
across the country
6,000 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- 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.
- Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities.
- Confer with parents, administrators, testing specialists, social workers, and professionals to develop individual educational plans (IEPs) for students' educational, physical, and social development.
- Develop and implement strategies to meet the needs of students with a variety of handicapping conditions.
- Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification and positive reinforcement.
- Modify the general education curriculum for students with disabilities, based upon a variety of instructional techniques and instructional technology.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Special Education and TeachingSee 602 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Helping and teaching
Creative and expressive
Analytical and curious
Careers like this one
- Special Education Teachers, Secondary School$74,260
- Special Education Teachers, Preschool$64,830
- Education Teachers, Postsecondary$75,350
- Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education$63,970
- Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education$64,370
- English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary$78,760
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $66,810 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.