Teachers, therapists, and specialists who help students with disabilities learn and thrive.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Special Education Director: Runs a school district's special education services for thousands of students with disabilities. Typical pay $115k.
Special Education Hearing Officer: Acts as the judge when parents and a school district disagree about a child's special education, hearing evidence and issuing a legal decision. Typical pay $110k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
School Physical Therapist: Helps students with physical disabilities move, sit, walk, and get around school safely. Typical pay $101k.
Educational Audiologist: Tests students' hearing and sets up hearing aids, cochlear implant support, and sound systems in classrooms. Typical pay $92k.
Special Education Teacher: Teaches students with learning, emotional, physical, or intellectual disabilities, adapting lessons to each student. Typical pay $66k.
Orientation & Mobility Specialist: Teaches blind and visually impaired people to travel safely and independently, using a white cane, hearing, and maps. Typical pay $68k.
Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing: Teaches deaf and hard-of-hearing students using American Sign Language, spoken language, or both. Typical pay $66k.
School Occupational Therapist: Helps students build skills like handwriting, using scissors, focusing, and managing sensory overload. Typical pay $98k.
Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA): Designs behavior plans to help children with autism and other needs learn skills and reduce challenging behaviors. Typical pay $75k.
Educational Diagnostician: Tests students to figure out whether they have learning disabilities and what help they need. Typical pay $72k.
Assistive Technology Specialist: Finds and sets up technology that helps students with disabilities learn, like eye-gaze computers and speech devices. Typical pay $70k.
Special Education Transition Specialist: Helps teens with disabilities plan and prepare for life after high school: jobs, college, and independent living. Typical pay $66k.
Autism Specialist: Helps schools support autistic students by coaching teachers and designing classroom supports. Typical pay $70k.
Hospital / Homebound Teacher: Teaches students who can't attend school because they're in the hospital or recovering at home. Typical pay $64k.
Adapted Physical Education Teacher: Designs PE classes so students with disabilities can exercise, play sports, and build motor skills. Typical pay $65k.
Braille Transcriber: Converts textbooks, tests, maps, and math into Braille for blind students. Typical pay $42k.
Special Education Bus Aide: Rides the school bus to help and supervise students with disabilities on the way to and from school. Typical pay $32k.
Deafblind Intervener: Works one-on-one with a student who is both deaf and blind, giving them access to lessons, people and the world through touch and sign. Typical pay $36k.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.