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Special Education Teachers, Preschool

Occupation · SOC 25-2051.00

Teach academic, social, and life skills to preschool-aged 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: Early Childhood Special Education Teacher (ECSE Teacher) · Resource Teacher · Special Education Teacher · Teacher · Early Intervention Teacher · Exceptional Student Education Teacher (ESE Teacher) · Handicapped Teacher · Preschool Special Education Teacher · Severe/Profound Mental Handicaps Special Education Teacher · Special Education Resource Teacher · Autistic Teacher · Behavior Interventionist

Job family: Educational Instruction and Library Occupations

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A source-stamped Markdown brief of this occupation — paste it into an agent, or fetch /roles/role-25-2051-00/context.md directly.

AI work map

A fast read on where AI already shows up in this occupation, where it stays a copilot, where humans remain in the loop, and what the labor market is doing. Built from observed Claude.ai conversations mapped to O*NET tasks and from published research — measures of usage and exposure, not advice or predictions that the job is going away.

Often handed to AI

Task areas most often handled directively in observed AI conversations — candidates to delegate with light review.

  • Prepare objectives, outlines, or other materials for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements. · 2.1%
  • Present information in audio-visual or interactive formats, using computers, television, audio-visual aids, or other equipment, materials, or technologies. · 0.6%
  • Prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration. · 0.5%
See how AI is used here →

Use as a copilot

Task areas where people work with AI — iterating, learning, or checking — staying in the loop rather than handing the task off.

  • Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement. · 0.8%
See collaboration patterns →

Keep a human in the loop

Task areas where a human was still judged necessary in a large share of observed conversations — not a safety ruling, an observed-need signal.

  • Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement. · 100.0% need a human
  • Prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration. · 97.8% need a human
  • Prepare objectives, outlines, or other materials for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements. · 97.6% need a human
See the boundary tasks →

50th-percentile task overlap — yet about 2,100 openings a year (+1.4% projected, BLS), and observed AI use leans 3960% copilot, not hand-off (AEI) . What exposure means →

AI & job outlook

What today's research says about this occupation's exposure to AI, how AI is actually being used in it, and where employment is headed. These are positions within published studies — measures of exposure and usage, not predictions that this job will disappear.

Exposure to current AI

Each study uses its own scale, so the raw scores are not comparable across rows — the percentile (this job's rank among all U.S. occupations with data) is the comparable figure, and sizes the bars.

Measure Rank vs all occupations Percentile Score
Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.) Moderate 58th 0.4
LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou) Low 31st 0.3
AI assistant applicability (Microsoft) Moderate 60th 0.2

OpenAI's exposure study scores tasks three ways: with a language model alone (α 0.1), with simple added tooling (β 0.2), and including AI-powered software (γ 0.3). Higher means more of the job's tasks could be done at least twice as fast — not that they will be automated away.

Most of this job's tasks can be done remotely (Dingel–Neiman), which tends to track with higher digital and AI exposure.

How AI is actually used in this job

Among measured AI assistant conversations mapped to this occupation (Anthropic Economic Index, 2026-01-15), these task types came up most. These are shares of observed AI conversations — not shares of the job, of worker time, or of what could be automated.

Observe and evaluate students' performance, behavior, social development, and physical health. 1.8%
Present information in audio-visual or interactive formats, using computers, television, audio-visual aids, or other equipment, materials, or technologies. 1.4%
Prepare objectives, outlines, or other materials for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements. 1.2%
Organize and display students' work in a manner appropriate for their perceptual skills. 1.1%
Prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration. 0.6%
Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement. 0.3%

Job outlook

Independent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projection for 2024–2034 — a labor-market forecast, not an AI-impact forecast.

Outlook About average · +1.4% by 2034
Projected annual openings 2,100
Employment 2024 → 2034 29,300 → 29,700

“Annual openings” counts new jobs plus replacements for workers who leave the occupation, so it can be large even when growth is modest.

Where this work sits on the global GenAI gradient

The ILO's 2025 global study scores generative-AI exposure on the international ISCO-08 occupation system, not US SOC. Bridged through the published (and approximate, many-to-many) IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 crosswalk, this US occupation corresponds to the international occupation below. Exposure here means how much of the work's tasks today's AI can attempt — task overlap, not automation, adoption, or jobs lost.

28% mean task exposure (2025)
54th percentile of 427 placed occupations
−4 pts shift 2023 → 2025
International occupation (ISCO-08) Task exposure (2025) Most tasks fall in
Special Needs Teachers · 2352 28% Not exposed

Read the whole six-band gradient on the GenAI exposure gradient page. The crosswalk is approximate: a US occupation can map to several international ones, and the ILO scores describe the international occupation, not this exact US role.

Working with AI in this job

How people actually apply AI to this occupation's tasks, from Claude.ai (Free and Pro) conversations in the Anthropic Economic Index, 2026-01-15. This is one AI assistant's consumer sample — not all AI, not the whole workforce. Autonomy and the collaboration mix are model-rated estimates; figures below the sample floor are hidden.

Augmentation vs. automation 39.6% working with AI · 48.9% handed to AI
Most common way people use AI here Directive · AI does it; you give the instruction
Typical AI autonomy 4.0 / 5 · higher = AI acts more independently
Used for work (vs. personal / coursework) 48.4%

What people delegate to AI

The role's most common tasks in AI conversations, each tagged with how people work with the AI on it. “Usage” is the share of observed conversations, not of the job.

Task How Usage
Prepare objectives, outlines, or other materials for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements. Directive 2.1%
Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement. Learning 0.8%
Present information in audio-visual or interactive formats, using computers, television, audio-visual aids, or other equipment, materials, or technologies. Directive 0.6%
Prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration. Directive 0.5%
Observe and evaluate students' performance, behavior, social development, and physical health. Directive 0.4%

Where a human is still needed

Tasks where the model most often judged that a person remained necessary — a useful read on the current boundary, not a guarantee.

Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement. 100.0%
Prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration. 97.8%
Prepare objectives, outlines, or other materials for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements. 97.6%
Observe and evaluate students' performance, behavior, social development, and physical health. 92.5%
Present information in audio-visual or interactive formats, using computers, television, audio-visual aids, or other equipment, materials, or technologies. 90.5%

What people most often hand AI here

Example prompts phrased from the tasks people most often delegate to AI in this occupation (Anthropic Economic Index). Each shows the underlying measured task and its share of observed AI use. They are suggested phrasings of real tasks — starting points, not endorsed instructions.

  • Help me prepare objectives, outlines, or other materials for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements.

    From: Prepare objectives, outlines, or other materials for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements. · 2.1% of measured AI use · directive

  • Help me teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement.

    From: Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement. · 0.8% of measured AI use · learning

  • Help me present information in audio-visual or interactive formats, using computers, television, audio-visual aids, or other equipment, materials, or technologies.

    From: Present information in audio-visual or interactive formats, using computers, television, audio-visual aids, or other equipment, materials, or technologies. · 0.6% of measured AI use · directive

  • Help me prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration.

    From: Prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration. · 0.5% of measured AI use · directive

Tasks

All 36 tasks O*NET lists for this occupation, ordered by importance. Each links to its own page with AI-exposure and observed-use detail.

Work activities

Knowledge, skills & abilities

O*NET importance rating, from 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important).

Knowledge

English Language 4.5
Education and Training 4.2
Psychology 3.8
Public Safety and Security 3.4
Therapy and Counseling 3.3
Computers and Electronics 3.3
Administrative 3.1
Customer and Personal Service 3.1

Essential skills

Speaking 4.1
Active Listening 4.0
Reading Comprehension 3.9
Critical Thinking 3.9
Writing 3.8
Learning Strategies 3.8
Monitoring 3.8
Active Learning 3.6

Abilities

Oral Expression 4.1
Oral Comprehension 4.0
Written Comprehension 4.0
Problem Sensitivity 4.0
Speech Clarity 4.0
Deductive Reasoning 3.9
Written Expression 3.8
Inductive Reasoning 3.8
Speech Recognition 3.5
Information Ordering 3.4
Selective Attention 3.4
Near Vision 3.4
Fluency of Ideas 3.3
Category Flexibility 3.0

Transferable skills

Social Perceptiveness 3.9
Instructing 3.6
Service Orientation 3.6
Judgment and Decision Making 3.4
Coordination 3.3
Complex Problem Solving 3.3
Systems Analysis 3.1
Systems Evaluation 3.1
Time Management 3.1
Persuasion 3.0

Skills in demand

Skills employers ask for in job postings for this occupation (Lightcast), with whether each is a common or specialized skill.

Tools & technology

Example Category
Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet software Hot technology
Microsoft Office software Office suite software Hot technology
Microsoft Outlook Electronic mail software Hot technology
Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation software Hot technology
Microsoft Word Word processing software Hot technology
American Sign Language Browser Data base user interface and query software
Children's educational software Computer based training software
Drawing software Graphics or photo imaging software
Email software Electronic mail software
Screen magnification software Device drivers or system software
Screen reader software Device drivers or system software
Web browser software Internet browser software

Work context

How characteristic each condition is of the job, on O*NET's 1–5 context scale (higher = more present in day-to-day work). Each condition links to how it varies across all occupations.

Face-to-Face Discussions with Individuals and Within Teams 5.0
Contact With Others 5.0
Work With or Contribute to a Work Group or Team 4.7
E-Mail 4.6
Physical Proximity 4.5
Indoors, Environmentally Controlled 4.4
Frequency of Decision Making 4.3
Freedom to Make Decisions 4.1
Determine Tasks, Priorities and Goals 3.6
Impact of Decisions on Co-workers or Company Results 3.6
Telephone Conversations 3.6
Exposed to Sounds, Noise Levels that are Distracting or Uncomfortable 3.5
Coordinate or Lead Others in Accomplishing Work Activities 3.4
Spend Time Kneeling, Crouching, Stooping, or Crawling 3.4
Written Letters and Memos 3.4
Spend Time Standing 3.4
Health and Safety of Other Workers 3.3
Spend Time Bending or Twisting Your Body 3.3
Work Outcomes and Results of Other Workers 3.2
Importance of Being Exact or Accurate 3.1
Time Pressure 3.1
Exposed to Disease or Infections 3.1
Spend Time Making Repetitive Motions 3.1
Deal With External Customers or the Public in General 2.9
Conflict Situations 2.9
Outdoors, Exposed to All Weather Conditions 2.8
Spend Time Sitting 2.8
Dealing With Unpleasant, Angry, or Discourteous People 2.7
Spend Time Walking or Running 2.7
Spend Time Using Your Hands to Handle, Control, or Feel Objects, Tools, or Controls 2.7
Importance of Repeating Same Tasks 2.4
Consequence of Error 2.4
Spend Time Keeping or Regaining Balance 2.3
Level of Competition 2.1
Outdoors, Under Cover 1.9
Wear Common Protective or Safety Equipment such as Safety Shoes, Glasses, Gloves, Hearing Protection, Hard Hats, or Life Jackets 1.9
Exposed to Cramped Work Space, Awkward Positions 1.8
Exposed to Contaminants 1.7
Dealing with Violent or Physically Aggressive People 1.7
Exposed to Minor Burns, Cuts, Bites, or Stings 1.7

How to get in

Job zone
Zone 5 — Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
Education
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Typical entry-level education
Bachelor's degree · BLS, the typical path — not a requirement
Related experience
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Preparation level
SVP (8.0 and above) — total schooling plus on-the-job experience.

What to study: Education . Fields of study crosswalked to this occupation (NCES CIP–SOC), not a requirement.

Education of current workers

Share of people in this occupation at each level of education.

Bachelor's Degree 31.7%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate 31.7%
Master's Degree 24.3%
First Professional Degree 7.8%
Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) 3.0%
Some College Courses 1.4%

Interests & work styles

The interests and personal qualities O*NET associates with people who do this work.

Work styles

Integrity 10.0
Cooperation 9.0
Social Orientation 8.0
Self-Control 7.0
Stress Tolerance 6.0
Empathy 5.0
Perseverance 4.0
Adaptability 3.0

Career interests (Holland / RIASEC)

Social 7.0
Artistic 4.0
Investigative 3.5
Conventional 3.2

Interest areas

Teaching/Education 6.8
Social Service 6.7
Social Science 4.7
Professional Advising 4.3

Wages & employment

U.S. · annual wages (BLS OEWS)

$39k10th$49k25th$62kMedian$81k75th$133k90th
Annual wages by percentile — U.S. (BLS OEWS). The light band spans the 10th–90th percentile; the darker band is the middle half (25th–75th); the line is the median.
29k202430k2034 (proj.)+1.4% · About average
Projected U.S. employment, 2024–2034 (BLS Employment Projections). A labor-market forecast for the occupation, not an AI-impact forecast.
10th percentile $38,740
25th percentile $49,370
Median (50th) $62,190
75th percentile $81,330
90th percentile $132,530
People employed 28,200

Industries that employ this occupation

Where these workers are employed, by number of jobs (national, BLS OEWS). Pay shown is the occupation's national median, not industry-specific.

Industry Workers National median pay
Educational Services · Sector 17,560 $62,710
Health Care and Social Assistance · Sector 10,020 $60,510
Offices of Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapists, and Audiologists · National industry 2,600 $131,210
Services for the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities · National industry 920 $49,740
Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers · National industry 60 $46,140
Residential Intellectual and Developmental Disability Facilities · National industry 50 $45,390

Where this work is most concentrated

Industries where this occupation is far more common than in the economy as a whole. The location quotient is how many times more concentrated it is here (a value of 5 means five times its economy-wide share).

Industry Concentration Workers
Offices of Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapists, and Audiologists · National industry 29.83× 2,600
Educational Services · Sector 7.04× 17,560
Health Care and Social Assistance · Sector 2.37× 10,020
Services for the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities · National industry 2.09× 920

Part of the Education career cluster.

Exposure quadrant: AI task-overlap percentile vs Median pay Special Education Teachers, Preschool sits at the 50th percentile of AI task-overlap and the 50th percentile of median pay, placed here against 9 adjacent occupations on the same two axes. Lower overlap · higher pay Higher overlap · higher pay Higher overlap · lower pay Lower overlap · lower pay Special Education Teachers, Preschool Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education Adapted Physical Education Specialists Special Education Teachers, Middle School Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors AI task-overlap percentile → ↑ Median pay
AI task-overlap percentile (horizontal) vs. median-pay percentile (vertical), across all scored occupations. This occupation is highlighted; related occupations are plotted alongside it. Overlap measures shared tasks with AI, not automation.

Side-by-side comparisons place two occupations’ pay, preparation, skills, and AI exposure on the same page — same data, same scale, no forecast.

What you can do with this

Options the data surfaces for Special Education Teachers, Preschool — not advice or a forecast. Each is a real cross-link you can follow into the evidence.

Skills that travel

Capabilities this work builds that are used across many other occupations.

Adjacent roles

Occupations O*NET rates as related — the nearby moves on the map.

Paths in

How people typically prepare for this work.

Zoom out

On the global GenAI exposure gradient this work sits around the 54th percentile of 427 international occupations.

Write a report on thisheadline · factoids · citation

Special Education Teachers, Preschool show 50th-percentile AI task overlap — and about 2,100 annual U.S. openings

  • Special Education Teachers, Preschool rank in the 50th percentile (Moderate band) for AI task overlap across U.S. occupations — a measure of how much of the work today's AI can attempt, not how much is automated.Eloundou et al. (GPTs are GPTs) + Felten AIOE
  • The occupation is projected to see about 2,100 U.S. job openings per year (2024–34), counting growth and replacement — a labor-demand projection made independently of AI.BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
  • BLS projects employment to be about average (+1.4%) from 2024 to 2034.BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
  • Median annual pay is $62,190, across about 28,200 U.S. workers.BLS OEWS (May 2024)
  • Of the AI use actually observed for this work, 40% looks like augmentation (drafting, iterating, checking) rather than hands-off automation — from a Claude.ai usage sample, not a census.2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2
Copy the whole kit
Special Education Teachers, Preschool show 50th-percentile AI task overlap — and about 2,100 annual U.S. openings

• Special Education Teachers, Preschool rank in the 50th percentile (Moderate band) for AI task overlap across U.S. occupations — a measure of how much of the work today's AI can attempt, not how much is automated. (Eloundou et al. (GPTs are GPTs) + Felten AIOE)
• The occupation is projected to see about 2,100 U.S. job openings per year (2024–34), counting growth and replacement — a labor-demand projection made independently of AI. (BLS Employment Projections 2024–34)
• BLS projects employment to be about average (+1.4%) from 2024 to 2034. (BLS Employment Projections 2024–34)
• Median annual pay is $62,190, across about 28,200 U.S. workers. (BLS OEWS (May 2024))
• Of the AI use actually observed for this work, 40% looks like augmentation (drafting, iterating, checking) rather than hands-off automation — from a Claude.ai usage sample, not a census. (2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2)

Source: Singulariki — "Special Education Teachers, Preschool". https://singulariki.com/roles/role-25-2051-00
Note: AI task overlap measures what today's AI can attempt, not automation, job loss, or a forecast.

AssetsShare imageMethodology & sourcesPress & newsroomThe newsroom

Every line is built only from figures this page already shows and cites. AI task overlap means what today's AI can attempt — not automation, job loss, or a forecast.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Special Education Teachers, Preschool." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-25-2051-00

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Special Education Teachers, Preschool. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/roles/role-25-2051-00

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-role-25-2051-00,
  title  = {Special Education Teachers, Preschool},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/roles/role-25-2051-00}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.

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