People seek career options for an array of motivating factors: salary, title, location, schedule, passion. Becoming a teacher is a calling, a drive to instill content knowledge and strive to create pathways towards success for all students.
While all are educators, the positions within a school are diverse and specialized, requiring unique training, serving a purpose that intertwines to develop an environment bursting with opportunities to engage learners in tasks that highlight their strengths and build their growth areas. Regardless of your destination, specific avenues lead to educator titles, each with their own roles and responsibilities.
What Does a Special Education Teacher Do?
Special education teachers specialize in strategies that scaffold instruction to provide students a gateway to mastering grade-level content. Teachers of students with disabilities are trained in how to break down the content into manageable chunks, providing modifications and accommodations to support student learning.
Special education teachers are also the case managers of their students, being the liaison between schools and families to ensure the determinations made by the Admissions and Release Committee (ARC) are met. They are responsible for writing the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and meeting due process procedures within the legal timeline.
Special education law dictates much of the special education teacher’s scope of practice, so the ability to interpret the law and provide services within those expectations is significant to the work. The specialty a special education teacher pursues will determine more focused roles and responsibilities.
Learning and Behavior Disorder (LBD) teachers have multiple environments to instruct. There is a continuum of services that schools must provide for students, and the majority are serviced by LBD teachers. From co-teach to collaboration, highly structured classroom to resource, these educators work alongside regular education teachers to provide students grade-level content with scaffolds to make learning manageable based on the students’ IEP goals and services. There are academic and behavior resource rooms, and each focuses on the goals after which they are named.
Moderate to Severe Disability (MSD) classrooms require a teacher with an MSD certification, an additional course load, or a stand-alone degree, depending on the teacher’s chosen track. Teachers who serve in these roles are not only responsible for educating students in functional life skills and meeting content-related competencies. They provide primary medical care for students who are unable to advocate for themselves.
Typically, multiple or profound disabilities result in a teacher operating in a very different environment from the mainstream classroom. While these teachers are creative and adaptive so students can be a part of the regular education environment, the focus becomes on social interactions and how to behave in a group of peers rather than learning the content presented by the regular education teacher.
These teachers have the same roles in terms of IEPs and ARC meetings, but they also collaborate with providers to create a schedule for necessary therapies for each of their students and work hand-in-hand with families to transition students from school to home to the community.
MSD positions typically have a smaller caseload but a much larger responsibility for student care than LBD teachers. MSD teachers are benefited from the ability to manage students, instructional assistants, and therapists because those classrooms are small communities and are shared by many.
Special Education Requirements: Skills
Special education teachers are named “special” for a reason. Their skillset is complex. Attributes particularly helpful for special education teachers include the following:
Empathy
Teachers should relate to their families and serve as a liaison between the school and student, advocating for the student’s needs and working diligently on their behalf to ensure a proper education.
Communication
As the main person speaking with all shareholders, you must articulate goals, strategies, positive and negative messages, and data at any given point in time.
Flexibility
Students with disabilities require flexible adults. No day that is the same when you are dealing with diagnoses and behavior that follows. When one strategy isn’t working, being ready with a complete toolbox leads to being a successful special education teacher.
Analytical
Everything a special educator does revolves around goals and determining if a student is growing based on the instruction. If not, you must be prepared to try a different strategy to help students be successful and meet their goals.
Time Management
Special educators often have more flexibility with their time; however, they are also bound by law to specific timelines that have no flexibility. Being cognizant of your due process procedures and never allowing a deadline to pass without you meeting it is key to staying legal.
Consistent
Students with disabilities are often not great with change. The steadier the special education teacher is, the more successful the majority of their students will be.
Relational
Building relationships with students, families, and co-workers is imperative for a special education teacher. If you are not a people person and are afraid to dig in, this is probably not something you want to consider.
Confidentiality
You must be able to maintain confidential information.
Special Education Requirements: Education
Options for special education certification vary depending upon the university you attend or state in which you teach. The information provided here is general, and it is always a good idea to check with your state’s department of education requirements for certification.
Undergraduate programs offer a four-year degree in educating students with special needs. Many universities offer a Master’s in Special Education program that would follow an undergraduate program in regular education, certifying you for LBD. If you want to pursue an MSD certification, it is only granted through a post-graduate program, including master’s or Ed.S. programs.
Some states also offer certificate-only programs that extend your studies of special education to include more specific courses around serving students with profound disabilities. These programs are typically one to three years and vary based on the university you attend. For those who have an undergraduate degree but want to go into special education, there are master’s program options for you to consider that will provide a fast-paced foundational course and then an accelerated curriculum for serving students with disabilities.
Why Should You Consider a Special Education Position?
Salary and Benefits
Special education teacher benefits are equivalent or greater than a regular education teacher. The median special education teacher salary is $61,000.
Flexibility
Special education teachers have the flexibility to serve at any grade level, preschool through 12th grade, in any content area.
Marketability
These educators have a different skillset that makes them more marketable than those with a generalized roster of competencies to meet student needs.
Career Opportunities
Opportunities for advancement are greater with special education teachers because their education perspective is broader and more inclusive than that of a regular education-trained teacher.
Professional Learning
As behavior therapies and diagnoses change, there are chances for professional development in areas not available for other educators. Specializing is easy for a special education teacher.
Personal Impact
Special education teachers have a unique role in impacting students and families because they work with students for multiple years and get to know them in diverse roles compared to other professionals.
How to Become a Special Education Teacher
If you are interested in pursuing a career in special education, you should contact a school and begin job shadowing. Spend time in the classroom. If you love it, find a university with a program and apply!
Decide if you want to start with a bachelor’s in education and then work towards a master’s in special education or if you want to only teach students with disabilities. Consider your long-term goals and what will best serve you! You will not go wrong investing in the lives of our youth.
Interested in special education? Check out our available special education graduate programs and apply today!
