Special Education Teachers, Middle School
Teach academic, social, and life skills to middle 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.
95,200 people do this job in the US. $66,810 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 32%
- 17%
- 51%
Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 15%. Today's estimate: 20%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
The tasks
Sorted by . 40 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Develop and implement strategies to meet the needs of students with a variety of handicapping conditions.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 11% | 2.5 h50 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Modify the general education curriculum for students with disabilities, based upon a variety of instructional techniques and instructional technology.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 2.5 h50 min to 5 h | 55%Half by now | |
| Monitor teachers and teacher assistants to ensure that they adhere to inclusive special education program requirements.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 1.7 h38 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Develop or write Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for students.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 5% | 4.2 h2.5 h to 6.7 h | 41%Half by Oct 2026 | |
| Plan and conduct activities for a balanced program of instruction, demonstration, and work time that provides students with opportunities to observe, question, and investigate.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 5% | 1.3 h38 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Plan and supervise class projects, field trips, visits by guest speakers, or other experiential activities, and guide students in learning from those activities.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 5% | 5 h1.7 h to 2.1 work days | Stays with people | |
| Maintain accurate and complete student records, and prepare reports on children and activities, as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 1.7 h25 min to 2.5 h | 76%Half by now | |
| Instruct through lectures, discussions, and demonstrations in one or more subjects, such as English, mathematics, or social studies.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 4% | 50 min38 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification and positive reinforcement.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 4% | 50 min25 min to 2.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Confer with parents, administrators, testing specialists, social workers, and professionals to develop individual educational plans (IEPs) for students' educational, physical, and social development.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 3% | 2.5 h1.3 h to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Prepare objectives and outlines for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements of states and schools.Done more than weekly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 3% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | 46%Half by Oct 2026 | |
| Employ special educational strategies and techniques during instruction to improve the development of sensory- and perceptual-motor skills, language, cognition, and memory.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Special Education Teachers, Kindergarten19% now, 23% by 2028
- Special Education Teachers, Elementary School27% now, 36% by 2028
- Special Education Teachers, Secondary School22% now, 31% by 2028
- Special Education Teachers, Preschool15% now, 26% by 2028
- Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors57% now, 66% by 2028
- Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education29% now, 35% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).