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Boston Career Explorer

Educational Instruction and Library

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.

Also called: Education Specialist, Emotional Disability Special Education Teacher (ED SPED Teacher), Exceptional Student Education Teacher (ESE Teacher), Handicapped Teacher, HS SPED Teacher (High School Special Education Teacher), Learning Disabilities Special Education Teacher (LD Special Education Teacher)

Compare with my current job (English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary)
Median pay in Greater Boston
$87,630
Jobs in Greater Boston
3,920
Massachusetts 2024–2034
+2.2%
290 openings a year
Typical U.S. entry requirement
Bachelor's degree

Greater Boston: Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area, May 2025. Growth and openings: Massachusetts statewide projection.

Pay range in Greater Boston

Yearly pay in Greater Boston by percentile
10th25thMedian75th90th
$60,790$76,080$87,630$104,820$124,080

10% of workers earn less than the first figure and 10% earn more than the last.

What you’d do

  • 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.
  • Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities.

AI and this job

AI exposure: how much of this job’s work AI tools can do or help with, based on national research. It is not a forecast of job loss.

Moderate exposure64 of 100

The index averages three national research measures, each shown as a percentile of all jobs:

  • AIOE 70
  • Language-model AIOE 74
  • GPTs-are-GPTs 49

Observed AI use today: Some (Anthropic Economic Index)

AI exposure for this job is moderate, and observed AI use is still limited. AI tools may help with paperwork such as student records and reports, and with drafting lesson objectives. They do not replace building trust with students, working with families and specialists on IEPs, or using hands-on teaching strategies.

Likely to change

  • Student records and required reports
  • Drafting lesson and unit objectives

Still relies on people

  • Meeting with parents and specialists on IEPs
  • Teaching skills and keeping order in class

Written with AI from the data on this page. Check with a career coach before making a decision.

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Training near Boston

College and school programs in the Boston metro area that lead to this job, with 2023-24 completions (IPEDS).

12 programs near Boston (plus 22 graduate)

Related occupations

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