Special Education Teachers, Preschool
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.
- Median pay
- $64,830
- Doing it now
- 30,500
- By 2035
- Up 2.4%
- Usually needs
- Bachelor's degree
a year
across the country
2,000 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Arrange indoor or outdoor space to facilitate creative play, motor-skill activities, or safety.
- Attend to children's basic needs by feeding them, dressing them, or changing their diapers.
- Communicate nonverbally with children to provide them with comfort, encouragement, or positive reinforcement.
- Confer with parents, guardians, teachers, counselors, or administrators to resolve students' behavioral or academic problems.
- Develop individual educational plans (IEPs) designed to promote students' educational, physical, or social development.
- Develop or implement strategies to meet the needs of students with a variety of disabilities.
- Employ special educational strategies or techniques during instruction to improve the development of sensory- and perceptual-motor skills, language, cognition, or memory.
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, Middle School$66,810
- Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education$63,970
- Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education$64,370
- Education Teachers, Postsecondary$75,350
- Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education$72,040
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 $64,830 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.