---
title: "Special Education Teacher, Secondary School"
description: "Teach academic, social, and life skills to secondary school students with learning, emotional, or physical disabilities. Includes teachers who specialize…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-secondary-school"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Special Education Teacher, Secondary School

**Category:** Educational Instruction and Library · **SOC code:** 25-2058 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 25-2058.00

Teach academic, social, and life skills to secondary 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.

Also advertised as: Education Specialist; Emotional Disability Special Education Teacher (ED SPED Teacher); Exceptional Student Education Teacher (ESE Teacher); Handicapped Teacher; HS SPED Teacher (High School Special Education Teacher); Learning Disabilities Special Education Teacher (LD Special Education Teacher); Learning Support Teacher; Special Day Class Teacher (SDC Teacher).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $74,260 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** Not published by BLS
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $49,800 to $109,100, with the middle half between $60,180 and $93,730
- **Total US employment:** 163,930
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -1.6% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 11,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 41/100 — 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 163,930 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $49,800 |
| 25th | $60,180 |
| 50th (median) | $74,260 |
| 75th | $93,730 |
| 90th | $109,100 |
| Mean (average) | $77,260 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $101,120 | $94,493 | 2,510 |
| CA | $101,060 | $91,275 | 12,100 |
| DC | $99,670 | $90,691 | 440 |
| MD | $93,530 | $89,111 | 1,560 |
| RI | $92,990 | $90,917 | 830 |
| NY | $89,310 | $82,755 | 15,250 |
| MA | $83,890 | $79,323 | 5,470 |
| NJ | $83,770 | $76,991 | 7,520 |
| CT | $81,710 | $78,863 | 1,920 |
| AK | $80,580 | $78,723 | 590 |
| IL | $79,890 | $79,924 | 9,490 |
| VT | $79,360 | $81,014 | 660 |
| DE | $78,490 | $78,641 | 1,160 |
| MI | $78,050 | $81,119 | 2,570 |
| OR | $77,400 | $74,883 | 1,240 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-secondary-school/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/special-education-teacher-secondary-school.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 164,200 in the 2024–2034 base year to 161,500 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 2,600 jobs, or -1.6%. Declining: -1.6% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 11,100 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## 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.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 42.4% |
| Master's Degree | 42.2% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 15.0% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 0.2% |
| Post-Master's Certificate | 0.2% |

## What the work involves

- Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification and positive reinforcement.
- Confer with parents or guardians, other teachers, counselors, and administrators to resolve students' behavioral and academic problems.
- Attend staff meetings and serve on committees, as required.
- Meet with other professionals to discuss individual students' needs and progress.
- Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects, and communicate those objectives to students.
- Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities.
- Meet with parents and guardians to discuss their children's progress and to determine priorities for their children and their resource needs.
- Confer with other staff members to plan and schedule lessons promoting learning, following approved curricula.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Learning Strategies — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — 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
- Active Learning — importance 3.4 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 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Education and Training — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Therapy and Counseling — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

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

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 7.00 |
| I — Investigative | 3.81 |
| A — Artistic | 3.76 |
| C — Conventional | 3.52 |
| R — Realistic | 2.39 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.93 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ENFJ | 67.4 |
| ENFP | 67.1 |
| INFJ | 66.9 |
| ESFP | 66.5 |
| ISFP | 64.3 |

Best-fitting types: ENFJ, ENFP, INFJ, ESFP, ISFP, 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, Preschool](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-preschool) — median $64,830
- [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
- [High School Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/high-school-teacher) — median $72,040
- [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
- [Kindergarten Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/kindergarten-teacher) — median $62,680
- [Tutor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tutor) — median $43,350

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 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, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 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 30.3 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-secondary-school