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High school special ed teachers

Official title Special Education Teachers, Secondary School (SOC 25-2058)

Also called Special education teacher secondary school, SPED high school teacher, Secondary special education teacher, Transition teacher, Resource room teacher (high school)

In brief

In May 2025, BLS counted 163,930 US high school special ed teachers, with median pay of $74,260 a year. Of the BLS counts since 2021, the May 2025 count is the highest. The earliest figure here is an estimate of 4,000 from 1900, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for high school special ed teachers: Cloud IEP management + AT ecosystem, 2010 to 2020.

What the sources say

Official outlook

BLS projects little or no change in employment from 2025 to 2035 (-0.2%).

BLS Employment Projections 2025-35

AI exposure studies

Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. BLS publishes these counts as yearly survey snapshots and cautions against reading them as a precise trend.

Last updated .

Cite this page
APA

Future History. (2026, October 11). High school special ed teachers: jobs and pay since 1900 [Data set; data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35]. https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/25-2058

Chicago

Future History. "High school special ed teachers: jobs and pay since 1900." Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. Last modified October 11, 2026. https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/25-2058.

BibTeX

@misc{futurehistory_25_2058, author = {{Future History}}, title = {High school special ed teachers: jobs and pay since 1900}, year = {2026}, month = oct, howpublished = {\url{https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/25-2058}}, note = {Last updated 2026-10-11. Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35}, }

The access date is today's date on your device.

drag to travel through time
18251850187519001925195019752000now
2026
Known then as Teacher of the Deaf / Teacher of the Blind (residential school instructor)
Known then as Special Class Teacher / Teacher of Handicapped Children
Known then as Special Education Teacher (self-contained classes, often segregated settings)
Known then as Special Education Teacher (EHA/IDEA era, mainstreaming begins)
Known then as Special Education Teacher (IDEA 1997 reauthorization, IEP transition mandate)
Known then as Special Education Teachers, Secondary School (BLS SOC 25-2058)
Known today as Special Education Teachers, Secondary School (BLS SOC 25-2058)
Projected to still be called Special Education Teachers, Secondary School (BLS SOC 25-2058)
Data from the May 2025 survey
US Employment
164K
Est.

Stated in source: BLS OEWS

Official statistic
Report an error
Median Annual Wage
$74,260

≈ $72,356 in 2024 prices (derived by us, CPI-adjusted)

Official statistic
Report an error
Beat · 1817

April 15, 1817: Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc open the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons in Hartford, Connecticut -- the first permanent school for the deaf in the western hemisphere. Clerc, a deaf teacher from Paris, becomes one of the first professional special education teachers in American history. The school trains teachers who go on to establish state residential schools in New York (1818), Pennsylvania (1820), Kentucky (1823), Ohio (1827), and Virginia (1838). By 1900 more than fifty state schools for the deaf are operating, forming the institutional base of the American special education teaching profession.

Beat · 1897

The National Education Association holds its first gathering of the Department of the Deaf, Blind, and Mentally Deficient -- marking the first formal national professional organization for special education teachers. The professionalization of the field as a distinct discipline, separate from residential welfare work, begins at this moment. Forty years later, the Council for Exceptional Children (founded 1922) would become the dominant professional organization and remains so today.

Beat · 1975

November 29, 1975: President Gerald Ford signs the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142). Ford expresses concern in his signing statement that the law's mandates would be "unnecessarily costly and complex" -- but signs it anyway. The law reaches full implementation in October 1977, requiring every school district in the United States to identify, evaluate, and provide a free appropriate public education to every child with a disability in the least restrictive environment. For the first time, a licensed special education teacher of record is federally required for every student with a disability receiving services. The law transforms special education from a patchwork of state programs into a nationwide mandate, creating the profession of special education teacher as we know it today.

Beat · 1990

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act is renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in a 1990 reauthorization. The renamed law adds autism and traumatic brain injury as new disability categories, expands transition planning requirements, and places the language of disability rights at the center of special education law. "Handicapped" is replaced with "individuals with disabilities" throughout federal education law. The 1990 reauthorization also explicitly recognizes the role of assistive technology in special education for the first time.

Beat · 1997

IDEA 1997 reauthorization creates the age-16 transition planning mandate that defines the secondary special education teacher's unique legal accountability layer: beginning with the first IEP in effect when a student turns 16, every IEP must include measurable postsecondary goals in education, employment, and independent living, along with transition services designed to reach those goals. This mandate distinguishes the secondary SPED role from every other teacher category in American public education. No other classroom teacher carries federal legal accountability for a student's postsecondary trajectory -- only the secondary SPED teacher of record.

Beat · 2022

IDEA Part B student enrollment reaches 7,259,000 in the 2021-22 school year, nearly double the 1976-77 enrollment of 3,694,000 when the law first took effect. The growth is driven primarily by expanded identification of autism spectrum disorder (which grew from a reported 93,000 students in 2000-01 to over 800,000 by 2022-23) and the broadening of the developmental delay category. Meanwhile 45 states formally report special education teacher shortages in the 2024-25 school year, reflecting a workforce that has not kept pace with enrollment growth. The shortage is most acute for secondary teachers with autism, EBD, and severe/multiple disability specializations.

Beat · 2025

Education Week and NPR report that 57% of special education teachers used AI tools to help write IEPs or 504 plans during the 2024-25 school year, up from 39% the prior year. Teachers using AI weekly report saving up to six weeks of time annually. The most common AI-assisted tasks are goal drafting (31%), IEP summarization (30%), and accommodation selection (28%). Disability advocates raise concerns about ableist bias in training data, student privacy risks when entering assessment information into commercial AI platforms, and the risk that AI-generated goals may not meet IDEA's individualization standard. Georgia state guidance specifically advises against using AI for "high stakes" purposes such as IEP writing. The Council for Exceptional Children positions AI as a "writing partner" but not an autonomous IEP author.

How to read this number

OEWS is a point-in-time survey snapshot, not a continuous time series; BLS advises against using it for year-over-year trend comparison.

Each dot is a cited figure over time; the dotted line only links them (values between aren't measured). Hollow dots are estimates.

Official statistic: Copied by a script from a statistics agency table or a published study's table, not retyped by hand. BLS figures and the forecast and exposure tables are also re-checked against that table on every data run. Researched context: Researched from the cited source rather than copied from it by a script, so it is not machine-checked yet. Spot a mistake? Each figure has a “Report an error” link.

Cited forecasts · present → 2035

Will AI replace high school special ed teachers? What the research says

Each figure is stated by the named source; we publish no forecasts of our own. Where sources disagree, we show the disagreement rather than an average.

Each figure is stated by the named source; we publish no forecasts of our own. Where sources disagree, the spread is the honest signal.

What published forecasts say
Forecast change in the number of people doing this work, as published by each named source. Bars share one scale on every role, centred on zero and reaching the end at ±30%. Grey marks a small change, 3% or less either way.
BLS Employment Projections 2025-35
→ 2035
-0.2%
BLS National Employment Matrix, 2025-35 cycle, line for SOC 25-2058 (Special education teachers, secondary school): 164.8 thousand jobs in 2025, projected 164.5 thousand in 2035, a change of -0.4 thousand (-0.2%). Matrix employment counts all jobs in the occupation, including self-employed workers (0.4% of this occupation in 2025). The average for all occupations in this cycle is +3.5%.
Official statisticReport an error
How exposed is this work to AI (research measures)
Scores as published by each study. Each row says what it measures. These measure what AI could technically do, not forecasts of jobs lost.
Eloundou et al. (2023), "GPTs are GPTs"
2023 study · Share of tasks exposed to LLMs (β, human-rated)
29.5%
of tasks
What this measures

Published occupation-level exposure from the paper's occ_level.csv for O*NET-SOC 25-2058.00 Special Education Teachers, Secondary School. Shown: human-rated β = 0.295, the share of the occupation's tasks an LLM could do in at least half the time at equal quality, counting tasks that need LLM-powered software at half weight (β = E1 + 0.5 × E2). Other published measures for this occupation: human-rated α (LLM alone) 0.154 and γ (all LLM-assisted) 0.436; GPT-4-rated β 0.301. This measures how much of the work an LLM could touch, not how many jobs disappear.

Official statisticReport an error
Today, in this role

What's changing day to day for high school special ed teachers

Three parts of your work where AI is already doing real lifting, and what stays yours.

AI is sitting alongside you hereDevelop and write transition IEPs for students aged 16-21, synthesizing present levels of performance, age-appropriate transition assessment results (career interest inventories, vocational evaluations, situational assessments), and student-identified postsecondary goals

Develop and write transition IEPs for students aged 16-21, synthesizing present levels of performance, age-appropriate transition assessment results (career interest inventories, vocational evaluations, situational assessments), and student-identified postsecondary goals; drafting measurable postsecondary goals in education, employment, and independent living as federally mandated under IDEA § 300.320(b); using MagicSchool AI's Transition Plan Generator and Goalbook Toolkit to produce first-draft goal language, then editing every goal to reflect this student's specific assessment data, disability profile, and family-identified priorities before the IEP team meeting; documenting courses of study and transition services with VR coordination notes in Frontline IEP.[3],[8],[9]

Where your edge is

MagicSchool AI's Transition Plan Generator and Goalbook Toolkit cut transition IEP writing time per plan (Edutopia 2025): a genuine productivity gain when a secondary SPED teacher is managing several transition-eligible students simultaneously. But the IDEA standard is explicit: transition goals must be based on "age-appropriate transition assessments related to training, education, employment, and where appropriate, independent living skills" for this specific student. An AI-generated goal for "competitive employment in the food service industry" is non-compliant if it wasn't derived from an actual vocational interest inventory and situational assessment of this student. Develop expertise in administering and interpreting standardized transition assessments (CASAS, Career Assessment Inventory, BRIGANCE Transition Skills Inventory): this assessment competency is the professional foundation that makes your AI-assisted drafting legally defensible and genuinely individualized.

AI is sitting alongside you hereImplement and monitor AI-powered assistive technology tools mandated by secondary student IEPs, configuring Co:Writer for students with dysgraphia and written expression disabilities (grammar-aware word prediction and speech-to-text in Google Docs, essay writing, and lab reports)

Implement and monitor AI-powered assistive technology tools mandated by secondary student IEPs, configuring Co:Writer for students with dysgraphia and written expression disabilities (grammar-aware word prediction and speech-to-text in Google Docs, essay writing, and lab reports); deploying Equatio for students with dyscalculia accessing algebra, geometry, and chemistry courses (voice and handwriting input to digital math notation, Math Mentor AI tutoring hints); monitoring student AT use across content-area classes and documenting AT effectiveness for annual IEP review; training general education co-teachers to support AT implementation in their classrooms.[14],[12],[15]

Where your edge is

At the secondary level, IEP-mandated AT shifts from the simple text-to-speech accommodations of elementary SPED to a more complex toolkit: students with dysgraphia writing 5-paragraph essays in English class need Co:Writer's grammar-aware word prediction configured for their specific vocabulary set; students with dyscalculia attempting Algebra II need Equatio's voice-to-math-notation to participate in class at all. Your professional value is in the AT selection, configuration, and training: the IDEA AT consideration mandate requires you to match the tool to the student's specific functional limitation, not just check a box. Develop expertise in the Assistive Technology Consideration process (SETT framework) and in Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 AT ecosystem configuration: these are the skills that distinguish an effective secondary SPED teacher from one who hands students an app without instructional support.

AI is sitting alongside you hereMonitor and document student progress toward IEP annual goals, collecting curriculum-based measurement (CBM) data using AIMSweb Plus or Acadience for reading and math progress monitoring

Monitor and document student progress toward IEP annual goals, collecting curriculum-based measurement (CBM) data using AIMSweb Plus or Acadience for reading and math progress monitoring; entering data into Frontline Special Education Management; using MagicSchool AI to draft quarterly progress report narratives from entered data, then editing each narrative to include the student-specific context that distinguishes meaningful progress reporting from IDEA non-compliance; making data-based decisions about whether current specially designed instruction is producing sufficient rate of progress to reach annual goals, and convening amendment IEP meetings when trendlines indicate the current plan is insufficient.[16],[3]

Where your edge is

Progress monitoring for a secondary SPED caseload of several students across multiple goal domains is a logistical challenge that AI tools materially improve: MagicSchool AI draft progress narratives eliminate the blank-page paralysis of quarterly report writing, and Frontline IEP's automated trendline graphing replaces by-hand data sheets. But under IDEA § 300.320(a)(3), progress reports must inform parents whether the student is on track to achieve annual goals by year-end, and a generic AI-drafted narrative that doesn't mention that this student missed weeks of school due to suspension is misleading. The professional value is in your clinical interpretation of the data in context (attendance, medication changes, home circumstances, IEP amendment history) and in your willingness to convene an amendment meeting rather than writing a progress report that papers over an insufficient rate of progress.

Where high school special ed teachers go next

Natural next steps for someone with your foundation: not exits, evolutions.

What each move takes

Secondary special education teachers are a primary pipeline for special education director, special education coordinator, and assistant principal positions in secondary schools. The secondary SPED teacher's unique combination of IDEA compliance mastery, transition IEP legal expertise, VR coordination experience, and behavioral crisis management competency makes them exceptionally strong candidates for special education administrative roles. The 2024-2025 AI IEP tool adoption wave (MagicSchool AI, Goalbook Threads, n2y Polaris) has created urgent demand for SPED administrators who can evaluate AI vendor claims against IDEA compliance requirements, develop district acceptable-use policies for AI in IEP writing, and respond to parent and disability advocate concerns about AI-generated transition goals. Secondary SPED teachers who have managed transition IEP caseloads, supervised VR partnerships, and navigated OCR complaints are the strongest candidates for these roles.

What you'd add
  • · Special education administration: IDEA Part B compliance monitoring, state special education audit preparation, district-level IEP and transition policy development
  • · Administrator licensure or special education director certification (state-specific; most require a principal preparation program or special education director endorsement with IDEA compliance focus)
  • · Budget and staffing for secondary special education: IDEA Part B federal funding allocation, Transition Day programs, extended school year (ESY) planning, VR partnership MOUs
  • · AI EdTech policy development: evaluating AI IEP tools against IDEA individualization requirements, drafting district AI acceptable-use policies, communicating AI use standards to families
  • · Dispute resolution and due process: mediation, OCR complaint response, prior written notice compliance, transition services dispute resolution under IDEA § 300.507
What it takesSome new skills to pick up
Tools of the era

How has the work of high school special ed teachers changed since 1817?

The tools that defined the work, one line per era. Select an era to see how it reshaped the work.

  • Manual method / residential school hand instruction (American Sign Language, Braille, oral method)

    The first era of American special education was defined by embodied, direct instruction in residential settings. Teachers of the deaf used manual communication (ASL descended from Laurent Clerc's Parisian Sign Language), and teachers of the blind used raised-print systems (New York Point, Boston Line Type) before Louis Braille's system was finally adopted in the US in 1918. Oral method schools competed with manual method schools throughout this era in a pedagogical debate whose echoes still reach into present-day Deaf education. The teacher's primary tool was their own language, body, and presence.

    Effect on the work

    No technology displaced instructors in this era; the ratio of teachers to students in residential schools was relatively high because all instruction was individualized, hands-on, and communication-intensive. The residential school structure meant most teachers also served as dormitory supervisors and vocational trainers.

  • Public school special classes + behavioral learning methods (Skinnerian applied behavior analysis)

    The postwar era brought the special education profession from residential schools into public day schools. Federal categorical grants beginning in the early 1950s funded "special class" programs in public schools for children with intellectual disabilities and sensory impairments. Simultaneously, B.F. Skinner's operant conditioning research translated -- through applied behavior analysis (ABA) -- into systematic instructional methods: discrete trial training, task analysis, and reinforcement schedules that gave teachers a structured framework for instruction with non-verbal and low-verbal students. ABA became, and has remained, the most empirically validated instructional approach for students with autism and significant intellectual disability at the secondary level.

  • IEP documentation system (PL 94-142 / EHA: paper-based individualized education programs)

    Public Law 94-142, signed November 29, 1975 and reaching full implementation in 1977, created the federally mandated Individualized Education Program: a written document specifying present levels of performance, annual goals, the services to be provided, and the least restrictive environment for every student with a disability. The IEP became the central technology of the profession -- not a digital tool but a regulatory artifact that structured the entire job. Teachers spent hours each week writing and revising IEPs by hand or on typewriters. Compliance tracking was manual. Parent meeting documentation was paper-filed. The IEP is the first standardized "knowledge management system" in the history of special education, and it defined the administrative burden that would later drive AI adoption.

    Effect on the work

    PL 94-142 created the single largest expansion of special education employment in US history. The law's mandate to identify and serve every student with a disability effectively created a staffing floor enforced by federal audit.

  • Electronic IEP platforms (Sped*Net, Excent, SEA, early Frontline predecessors) + transition planning mandate

    The IDEA 1997 reauthorization added the transition planning mandate: beginning at age 14, every IEP must include measurable postsecondary goals in education, employment, and independent living. This expanded the secondary SPED teacher's job from academic instruction to life-planning -- a fundamentally different kind of work requiring coordination with vocational rehabilitation agencies, community colleges, and employers. Simultaneously, the first electronic IEP platforms (SpEd Forms, Sped*Net, and their predecessors) began replacing paper-based systems, reducing manual transcription and enabling cross-teacher consistency in IEP language. These early platforms stored student records in searchable databases but did not yet generate IEP content.

  • Cloud IEP management (Frontline Special Education, Infinite Campus, SNAP) + AT ecosystem (Read&Write, Co:Writer, CentralReach)

    The 2010s brought cloud-based IEP compliance platforms that added real-time audit trails, automated compliance deadline alerts, parent portal communication, and cross-district data sharing. Frontline Special Education Management (the product of several mergers involving Excent, STST, and Tranact) became the dominant platform, used by over 10,000 districts. Simultaneously, the assistive technology (AT) ecosystem for secondary students expanded dramatically: text-to-speech tools (Read&Write, Kurzweil), word prediction (Co:Writer), math accessibility (Equatio), and ABA data collection platforms (CentralReach, Catalyst) moved from dedicated AT devices to cloud-native tools that worked inside Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 -- the platforms that secondary schools were adopting for all students. The secondary SPED teacher became an AT integration specialist in addition to their instructional and IEP-compliance roles.

  • AI-assisted IEP writing and transition planning (MagicSchool AI, Goalbook Threads, n2y Polaris, Naviance AI)

    Generative AI reached special education faster than almost any other teaching category because the pain point was so acute: a secondary SPED teacher managing a caseload of several transition-eligible students might spend many hours per year on IEP writing alone. MagicSchool AI's IEP Goal Writer and Transition Plan Generator (launched 2022-23), Goalbook Threads' AI alignment evaluator (piloted 2025), and n2y Polaris's AI-assisted IEP cycle tool cut IEP writing time from a few hours per student to minutes according to Edutopia 2025 reporting. By 2024-25, 57% of special education teachers were using AI tools for IEP writing (up from 39% in 2023-24); weekly users reported saving up to six weeks of time annually. Advocates raised concerns about ableist bias in training data, student privacy risks from entering assessment data into commercial AI platforms, and the risk that AI-generated goals might not meet IDEA's individualization standard. The role of AI in this work remains contested: the Council for Exceptional Children's 2025 position is that AI can draft, but only the licensed teacher can decide.

    Effect on the work

    AI adoption in special education has reduced administrative hours per teacher without reducing teacher headcount -- the shortage (many states, 2024-25) is too severe for efficiency gains alone to register as displacement. The more significant effect may be retention: overwork and paperwork burden are consistently cited as the top reasons special education teachers leave the field, and tools that cut six weeks of paperwork annually could improve a role that has suffered from chronic high turnover.

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Special Education Teachers, Secondary School employment and pay by year

On record since1817
Latest US employment163,930 (May 2025)Source: BLS OEWS May 2025Official statisticReport an error
Latest US median pay$74,260 (May 2025)Source: BLS OEWS May 2025Official statisticReport an error
Outlook-0.2% by 2035Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35Official statisticReport an error
View all 14 years of cited US data, each linked to its source
YearUS employmentAnnual pay (median unless marked)SourceReport
19004,000n/aEst., 1900 Census Special Reports Researched contextReport
195025,000n/aEst., Special Education Researched contextReport
1975n/a$12,600NCES Researched contextReport
1976165,000n/aEst., NCES Researched contextReport
1990n/a$33,084NCES Researched contextReport
1999386,000n/aEst., Journal of Special Education Vol. 38 Researched contextReport
2000n/a$43,378NCES Researched contextReport
2019143,170$61,710BLS OEWS May 2019 Official statisticReport
2020142,500$62,320BLS OEWS May 2020 Official statisticReport
2021145,690$62,120BLS OEWS May 2021 Official statisticReport
2022152,490$63,560BLS OEWS May 2022 Official statisticReport
2023158,150$66,620BLS OEWS May 2023 Official statisticReport
2024162,780$69,590BLS OEWS May 2024 Official statisticReport
2025163,930$74,260BLS OEWS May 2025 Official statisticReport
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