---
title: "Special Education Teacher, Preschool"
description: "Teach academic, social, and life skills to preschool-aged students with learning, emotional, or physical disabilities. Includes teachers who specialize…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-preschool"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Special Education Teacher, Preschool

**Category:** Educational Instruction and Library · **SOC code:** 25-2051 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 25-2051.00

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.

Also advertised as: Early Childhood Special Education Teacher (ECSE Teacher); Early Intervention Teacher; Exceptional Student Education Teacher (ESE Teacher); Preschool SPED Teacher (Preschool Special Education Teacher); Profound Mental Handicaps SPED Teacher (Profound Mental Handicaps Special Education Teacher); Severe Mental Handicaps SPED Teacher (Severe Mental Handicaps Special Education Teacher); Special Education Resource Teacher; Special Education Teacher.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $64,830 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** Not published by BLS
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $45,620 to $130,040, with the middle half between $52,210 and $91,660
- **Total US employment:** 29,510
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +2.4% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 2,000 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 53/100 — 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 29,510 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $45,620 |
| 25th | $52,210 |
| 50th (median) | $64,830 |
| 75th | $91,660 |
| 90th | $130,040 |
| Mean (average) | $76,380 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MA | $99,070 | $93,677 | 710 |
| NJ | $92,060 | $84,610 | 1,720 |
| CT | $87,960 | $84,895 | 380 |
| WA | $86,580 | $80,906 | 820 |
| MD | $85,010 | $80,994 | 70 |
| PA | $83,510 | $85,588 | 490 |
| AK | $80,390 | $78,537 | 110 |
| VT | $79,000 | $80,647 | 70 |
| CO | $78,040 | $75,729 | 810 |
| VA | $77,570 | $76,723 | 650 |
| OR | $77,490 | $74,970 | 400 |
| MN | $75,880 | $76,941 | 1,250 |
| MI | $75,860 | $78,843 | 430 |
| HI | $75,120 | $68,321 | 230 |
| GA | $72,310 | $75,094 | 380 |

30 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 45 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-preschool/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/special-education-teacher-preschool.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 30,500 in the 2025–2035 base year to 31,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 700 jobs, or +2.4%. Slower than average: 2.4% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 2,000 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

- Develop or implement strategies to meet the needs of students with a variety of disabilities.
- Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement.
- Observe and evaluate students' performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.
- Attend professional meetings, educational conferences, or teacher training workshops to maintain or improve professional competence.
- Prepare classrooms with a variety of materials or resources for children to explore, manipulate, or use in learning activities or imaginative play.
- Arrange indoor or outdoor space to facilitate creative play, motor-skill activities, or safety.
- Communicate nonverbally with children to provide them with comfort, encouragement, or positive reinforcement.
- Meet with parents or guardians to discuss their children's progress, advise them on using community resources, or teach skills for dealing with students' impairments.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

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

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 4.0 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), Artistic (A), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 7.00 |
| A — Artistic | 3.98 |
| I — Investigative | 3.49 |
| C — Conventional | 3.18 |
| R — Realistic | 2.70 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.70 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ENFP | 68.8 |
| ESFP | 67.7 |
| ISFP | 67.5 |
| INFJ | 67.0 |
| ENFJ | 66.7 |

Best-fitting types: ENFP, ESFP, ISFP, INFJ, ENFJ, INFP.

## 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, Elementary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-elementary-school) — median $67,170
- [Special Education Teacher, Middle School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-middle-school) — median $66,810
- [Special Education Teacher, Secondary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-secondary-school) — median $74,260
- [Kindergarten Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/kindergarten-teacher) — median $62,680
- [Teaching Assistant, Special Education](https://nuecareer.com/careers/teaching-assistant-special-education) — median $37,010
- [Elementary School Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/elementary-school-teacher) — median $63,970
- [Preschool Teacher, Except Special Education](https://nuecareer.com/careers/preschool-teacher) — median $38,140
- [Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/adult-basic-education-adult-secondary-education-and-english-as-a-second-language-instructor) — median $61,540
- [Adapted Physical Education Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/adapted-physical-education-specialist) — median $76,580

## 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/special-education-teacher-preschool