Education
Special Education Teachers, Secondary School
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.
Median salary (BLS)
$74,260
10th–90th percentile (BLS)
$50k – $109k
Job outlook
No separate BLS projection for this specific role
AI exposure
Early-career check: graduates of the matching programs below typically earn $85,000 ten years after starting college — an early-career figure, vs. the all-experience BLS median above. Source: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard.
Plan a path to Special Education Teachers, Secondary School
Education
Typical entry: Bachelor's degree
Plan my path to this →Typical progression
Junior Special Education Teachers, Secondary School
Entry / Junior
$49,800
~2 yrs to advance
Special Education Teachers, Secondary School
Established
$74,260
~3 yrs to advance
Senior Special Education Teachers, Secondary School
Senior
$91,680
Key skills
A typical day
- •Establish and enforce rules for behavior and policies and procedures to maintain order among students.
- •Maintain accurate and complete student records, and prepare reports on children and activities, as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations.
- •Confer with parents, administrators, testing specialists, social workers, or other professionals to develop individual educational plans (IEPs) for students' educational, physical, and social development.
- •Employ special educational strategies and techniques during instruction to improve the development of sensory- and perceptual-motor skills, language, cognition, and memory.
- •Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects, and communicate those objectives to students.
Fields of study
Any field
Top colleges for Education
Explore all- University of Michigan18% admit · $87,000 grad pay
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill19% admit · $73,000 grad pay
- University of Wisconsin–Madison49% admit · $72,000 grad pay
- Vanderbilt University7% admit · $88,000 grad pay
- University of Virginia19% admit · $85,000 grad pay
Reputation-based selection; stats shown are outcome data per school.