# Special Education Teachers, Middle School

> Teach academic, social, and life skills to middle 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.

- **SOC code:** 25-2057.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-25-2057-00
- **Also known as:** Intervention Specialist, Middle School Special Education Teacher (MS SPED Teacher), SPED Resource Teacher (Special Education Resource Teacher), Special Education Teacher (SPED Teacher), Exceptional Children Teacher (EC Teacher), Exceptional Student Education Teacher (ESE Teacher), Inclusion Teacher, Learning Disabilities Teacher (LD Teacher)
- **Frame:** "AI exposure" means task overlap (how codifiable the work is), not jobs lost or a forecast. Every figure below is traced to a named public dataset.

## What this work is

**Core tasks** (O*NET):
- Develop or write Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for students.
- Establish and enforce rules for behavior and policies and procedures to maintain order among students.
- Develop and implement strategies to meet the needs of students with a variety of handicapping conditions.
- Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities.
- Instruct students in daily living skills required for independent maintenance and self-sufficiency, such as hygiene, safety, and food preparation.
- Confer with parents or guardians, other teachers, counselors, and administrators to resolve students' behavioral and academic problems.
- Coordinate placement of students with special needs into mainstream classes.
- Confer with parents, administrators, testing specialists, social workers, and professionals to develop individual educational plans (IEPs) for students' educational, physical, and social development.
- Modify the general education curriculum for students with disabilities, based upon a variety of instructional techniques and instructional technology.
- Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification and positive reinforcement.
- Guide and counsel students with adjustments, academic problems, or special academic interests.
- Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects, and communicate those objectives to students.

**Emerging tasks** (O*NET):
- Track students' progress on computer-based programs, such as reading fluency and comprehension.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- English Language _(knowledge)_
- Education and Training _(knowledge)_
- Active Listening _(essential_skill)_
- Speaking _(essential_skill)_
- Active Learning _(essential_skill)_
- Learning Strategies _(essential_skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(transferable_skill)_
- Instructing _(transferable_skill)_
- Oral Comprehension _(ability)_
- Oral Expression _(ability)_
- Mathematics _(knowledge)_
- Reading Comprehension _(essential_skill)_

**Skills in demand:**
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(Common Skill)_
- Learning Strategies _(Specialized Skill)_
- Instructing _(Specialized Skill)_
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- Active Learning _(Common Skill)_
- Mathematics _(Common Skill)_
- Writing _(Common Skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(Specialized Skill)_
- Reading Comprehension _(Common Skill)_
- Inductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Apple macOS _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft SharePoint _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Word _(hot technology)_
- Blackboard software
- Common Curriculum
- EasyCBM
- Email software
- Flipgrid

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 51st percentile (Moderate) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 45th percentile (Moderate) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 57th percentile (Moderate) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** -1.9% growth (Declining); 6.3k annual openings; 94.8k → 93k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $64,880; 95,330 employed.

## Sources

- **O*NET** (30.3) — U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)** (May 2024) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS Employment Projections** (2024–2034) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **Anthropic Economic Index** (v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27)) — Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/economic-index
- **Microsoft “Working with AI”** (working-with-ai) — Microsoft Research. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/
- **“GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.)** (arXiv 2303.10130) — OpenAI / academic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130

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_Generated from Singulariki's joined dataset; data snapshot 2026-06-02T21:00:32.945303+00:00. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-25-2057-00_