---
title: "Adapted Physical Education Specialist"
description: "Provide individualized physical education instruction or services to children, youth, or adults with exceptional physical needs due to gross motor…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/adapted-physical-education-specialist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Adapted Physical Education Specialist

**Category:** Educational Instruction and Library · **SOC code:** 25-2059 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 25-2059.01

Provide individualized physical education instruction or services to children, youth, or adults with exceptional physical needs due to gross motor developmental delays or other impairments.

Also advertised as: Adapted Aquatics Instructor; Adapted Physical Activity Specialist; Adapted Physical Educator; APE Consultant (Adapted Physical Education Consultant); APE Instructional Specialist (Adapted Physical Education Instructional Specialist); APE Teacher (Adapted Physical Education Teacher); Certified Adapted Physical Educator; DAPE Specialist (Developmental Adapted Physical Education Specialist).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $76,580 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** Not published by BLS
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $48,440 to $120,080, with the middle half between $60,930 and $99,690
- **Total US employment:** 33,930
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +1.9% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 2,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 57/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 33,930 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $48,440 |
| 25th | $60,930 |
| 50th (median) | $76,580 |
| 75th | $99,690 |
| 90th | $120,080 |
| Mean (average) | $79,750 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CA | $103,050 | $93,073 | 8,920 |
| NM | $86,520 | $93,827 | 100 |
| DE | $85,040 | $85,204 | 50 |
| OR | $82,240 | $79,566 | 820 |
| RI | $80,080 | $78,295 | 110 |
| CO | $79,290 | $76,942 | 180 |
| MI | $78,540 | $81,628 | 3,320 |
| MA | $78,440 | $74,170 | 300 |
| VA | $77,280 | $76,436 | 540 |
| WA | $76,790 | $71,758 | 170 |
| PA | $76,530 | $78,434 | 450 |
| GA | $76,130 | $79,061 | 980 |
| MD | $76,100 | $72,505 | 3,020 |
| DC | $71,130 | $64,722 | 130 |
| NJ | $71,110 | $65,355 | 610 |

28 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 43 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/adapted-physical-education-specialist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/adapted-physical-education-specialist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 34,800 in the 2025–2035 base year to 35,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 700 jobs, or +1.9%. Slower than average: 1.9% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 2,300 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

## What the work involves

- Provide adapted physical education services to students with intellectual disabilities, autism, traumatic brain injury, orthopedic impairments, or other disabling condition.
- Provide students positive feedback to encourage them and help them develop an appreciation for physical education.
- Provide individual or small groups of students with adapted physical education instruction that meets desired physical needs or goals.
- Instruct students, using adapted physical education techniques, to improve physical fitness, gross motor skills, perceptual motor skills, or sports and game achievement.
- Write reports to summarize student performance, social growth, or physical development.
- Evaluate the motor needs of individual students to determine their need for adapted physical education services.
- Establish and maintain standards of behavior to create safe, orderly, and effective environments for learning.
- Collaborate with other educational personnel to provide inclusive activities or programs for children with disabilities.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Instructing — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Education and Training — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Conventional (C), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 4.17 |
| R — Realistic | 4.12 |
| I — Investigative | 3.65 |
| A — Artistic | 2.46 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.88 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISFJ | 73.4 |
| ESFJ | 69.2 |
| ISFP | 65.1 |
| ESFP | 63.1 |
| ENFJ | 57.1 |

Best-fitting types: ISFJ, ESFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Special Education Teacher, Kindergarten](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-kindergarten) — median $67,170
- [Special Education Teacher, Secondary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-secondary-school) — median $74,260
- [Special Education Teacher, Elementary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-elementary-school) — median $67,170
- [Special Education Teacher, Preschool](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-preschool) — median $64,830
- [Special Education Teacher, Middle School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-middle-school) — median $66,810
- [Instructional Coordinator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/instructional-coordinator) — median $77,440
- [High School Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/high-school-teacher) — median $72,040
- [Recreation and Fitness Studies Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/recreation-and-fitness-studies-teacher-postsecondary) — median $77,270
- [Teaching Assistant, Special Education](https://nuecareer.com/careers/teaching-assistant-special-education) — median $37,010
- [School Psychologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/school-psychologist) — median $95,990

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank 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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/adapted-physical-education-specialist