Online Special Education Degree

Online Special Education Degree

In addition to the basic knowledge required of all educators, Special Education instruction requires an abundance of compassion, patience and empathy.


Special Education teachers help children with mental and/or physical disabilities to learn and develop important life skills. Additionally, they adjust the central education curriculum as mandated by the state and federal governments to the particular needs of their students.

A degree in Special Education will prepare you to be able to work with children who: are mentally challenged, have mild to severe learning disabilities, may have speech, hearing or visual impairments or have autism.

Degree Choices

C (generally a Graduate Certificate), AA, BA, MA. A degree in Special Education normally runs along the K-12 tract in terms of coursework and general education requirements only branching off when it comes to the unique classes needed to teach you how to work specifically with Special needs students.

For those receiving a BA in Special Education, a fifth year is often added so that students can work on some graduate courses while simultaneously gaining some valuable experience in the field.

While it is certainly possible to get an Associate's degree or a Bachelor's degree in Special Education, the preferred qualification for Special Education teachers is a Master's.

Most Master's candidates already have a BA in an Education specialization (generally K-12) and take the Master's in Special Education to learn how: to develop different curricula which correspond with different needs, introduce technology in the Special Education classroom, work with students with various disabilities, and how to manage disruptive behavior in the classroom. Additionally, Special Education teachers must be fully versed in Educational Psychology, designing individual education programs (IEP) and Legal Issues pertaining to Special Education students.

Many Master's candidates prefer to focus on one particular area of Special Education. It's very common to see Master's students of Special Education completing an independent project concerning a specific area of interest.

Finally, most Special Education teachers must seek a state license before they are eligible to work with children who have special needs. Every state has its own regulations, but most require an exam and many require supervised classroom internships.

Career and Salary Outlook

According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the outlook for Special Education teachers is "excellent." They mainly attribute this to the current trend of mainstreaming Special Education students into the regular classroom. The more that the classrooms become mixed ability, the more in demand Special Education instructors will become.

Furthermore, the Bureau goes on to predict a 15% job growth over the next decade. They attribute the increase to higher diagnosis rates, federal education reform and a large number of retirements.

According to the Department of Labor, the current annual salary for Special Education teachers ranges from $51,000 to $53,000.