Special Education Teachers, Preschool
In short: today's best AI models could do about 25% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about 26% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 74% of the time, stays with people.
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.
29,510 people do this job in the US. $64,830 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on10 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people30 h
Special Education Teachers, Preschool, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 10 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 30 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Develop individual educational plans (IEPs) designed to promote students' educational, physical, or social development (about 2 h); Modify the general preschool curriculum for students with disabilities (about 2 h); Prepare objectives, outlines, or other materials for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements (about 2 h).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 26%
- 5%
- 69%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days 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, 11%. Today's estimate: 25%.
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.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, 0.074% went to this job's tasks in May 2026, the 199th largest of the 447 jobs that showed up at all; 1 of its 36 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.036% to 0.036% (released February and March 2025); 0.017% to 0.023% (August 2025 to February 2026); 0.068% to 0.074% (April to May 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.036% | 329 of 708 | 7 of 36 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.036% | 327 of 703 | 8 of 36 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.017% | 388 of 655 | 5 of 36 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.035% | 295 of 672 | 8 of 36 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.023% | 378 of 677 | 5 of 36 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.068% | 210 of 434 | 1 of 36 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.074% | 199 of 447 | 1 of 36 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 46% of this job's working time as physical work. For 9% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 9% in a purpose-built cell. 0.09 of 3, the 533rd highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 54%
- No robot shown 38%
- In a purpose-built cell 9%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 36 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Develop or implement strategies to meet the needs of students with a variety of disabilities.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 7% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Monitor teachers or teacher assistants to ensure adherence to special education program requirements.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 50 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Develop individual educational plans (IEPs) designed to promote students' educational, physical, or social development.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 6% | 5 h2.5 h to 1 work day | 99%Half by now | |
| Modify the general preschool curriculum for students with disabilities.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 1.7 h25 min to 5 h | 94%Half by now | |
| Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 6% | 38 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Employ special educational strategies or techniques during instruction to improve the development of sensory- and perceptual-motor skills, language, cognition, or memory.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 50 min17 min to 2.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Teach basic skills, such as color, shape, number and letter recognition, personal hygiene, or social skills, to preschool students with special needs.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 38 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Teach students personal development skills, such as goal setting, independence, or self-advocacy.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 33 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Prepare objectives, outlines, or other materials for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements.Done more than weekly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 4% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | 96%Half by now | |
| Prepare classrooms with a variety of materials or resources for children to explore, manipulate, or use in learning activities or imaginative play.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Amazon Sparrow (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 38 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Organize and supervise games or other recreational activities to promote physical, mental, or social development.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 38 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Plan and supervise experiential learning activities, such as class projects, field trips, or demonstrations.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 2.5 h1.3 h to 5 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, Kindergarten34% now, 34% by 2028
- Special Education Teachers, Elementary School40% now, 40% by 2028
- Special Education Teachers, Middle School40% now, 40% by 2028
- Special Education Teachers, Secondary School36% now, 36% by 2028
- Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education23% now, 23% by 2028
- Teaching Assistants, Special Education5% now, 5% 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).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Special Education Teachers, Preschool is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 25% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 26% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Special Education Teachers, Preschool come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Develop individual educational plans (IEPs) designed to promote students' educational, physical, or social development (99% of the task's time now); Modify the general preschool curriculum for students with disabilities (94% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); and Prepare objectives, outlines, or other materials for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements (96% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Special Education Teachers, Preschool stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Develop or implement strategies to meet the needs of students with a variety of disabilities; Monitor teachers or teacher assistants to ensure adherence to special education program requirements; and Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement. Together such tasks are about 74% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Special Education Teachers, Preschool?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026 and tied to a work task, 0.074% went to this job's tasks, the 199th largest share of the 447 jobs that showed up; 1 of its 36 tasks appeared. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 1%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Special Education Teachers, Preschool?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 46% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 9% of the working time. Its index is 0.09 of 3. One example: Amazon Sparrow for "prepare classrooms with a variety of materials or resources for children to explore, manipulate, or use in learning activities or imaginative play". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 36 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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