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.
163,930 people do this job in the US. $74,260 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 31%
- 22%
- 47%
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, 18%. Today's estimate: 22%.
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 daily by most who do it. | 8% | 2.5 h50 min to 5 h | 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. | 6% | 1.7 h25 min to 2.5 h | 76%Half by now | |
| Modify the general education curriculum for students with disabilities, based upon a variety of instructional techniques and technologies.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 2.5 h50 min to 5 h | 55%Half by now | |
| Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification and positive reinforcement.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 50 min25 min to 2.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Collaborate with other teachers and administrators in the development, evaluation, and revision of secondary school programs.Done more than monthly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 5% | 2.5 h50 min to 1 work day | Stays with people | |
| Employ special educational strategies and techniques during instruction to improve the development of sensory- and perceptual-motor skills, language, cognition, and memory.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 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 yearly by most who do it. | 5% | 5 h1.7 h to 2.1 work days | Stays with people | |
| Prepare objectives and outlines for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements of states and schools.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 4% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | 46%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. | 4% | 1.3 h38 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Confer with parents, administrators, testing specialists, social workers, or other professionals to develop individual educational plans (IEPs) for students' educational, physical, and social development.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 2.5 h50 min to 4.2 h | Stays with people | |
| Establish and enforce rules for behavior and policies and procedures to maintain order among students.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 3% | 25 min8 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Teach personal development skills, such as goal setting, independence, and self-advocacy.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, Middle School20% now, 32% by 2028
- Special Education Teachers, Preschool15% now, 26% by 2028
- Teaching Assistants, Special Education5% now, 5% 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).
- Elementary and Secondary Schools158,870 people
- Educational Support Services1,640 people
- State Government, excluding Schools and Hospitals990 people
- Residential Intellectual and Developmental Disability, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse Facilities530 people
- Local Government, excluding Schools and Hospitals390 people
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).