Occupation salary profile

Special Education Teachers, Middle School

SOC 25-2057 BLS OEWS May 2025 H-1B LCAs, last 12 months

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. Excludes “Substitute Teachers, Short-Term” (25-3031).

National median · BLS
$66,810
▲ +2.97% YoY
H-1B sponsor median
$60,400
▲ +2.44% YoY · 192 LCAs
Average salary · BLS
$73,780
Mean annual wage
U.S. employment
95,200
Jobs (BLS)
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Enter your pay and a location to see where you stand against BLS and H-1B pay, your estimated take-home pay, and your purchasing power.

Pay range for Special Education Teachers, Middle School

Annual base pay at each percentile. BLS covers all U.S. workers in this occupation; H-1B covers 192 certified Labor Condition Applications filed by sponsoring employers in the last 12 months.

Percentile All U.S. workers (BLS) H-1B sponsored
10th — entry pay$49,420$48,834
25th$60,000$52,980
Median (50th)$66,810$60,400
75th$82,800$69,484
90th — top pay$102,510$80,348
H-1B sponsors pay a median of $60,400 for Special Education Teachers, Middle School — 9.6% below the BLS national median of $66,810.

Hourly ⇄ annual pay

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Based on hrs/week × weeks/year = 2,080 hrs
Projections 2025–2035

Job outlook for Special Education Teachers, Middle School

BLS projects employment of special education teachers, middle school to decline 0.4% from 2025 to 2035, while employment across all occupations grows 3.5%. About 6,000 openings are projected each year, on average, from new jobs and from replacing workers who retire or move to other occupations.

Jobs 2025 → 2035
94,800 → 94,400
-400 jobs
Projected change
-0.4%
All occupations: +3.5%
Openings per year
6,000
Average, 2025–2035
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree
No related experience required
Self-employed
0.2% of workers (2025)
Preparation needed (O*NET Job Zone 4)
Considerable Preparation Needed. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
Fastest-declining jobs → Best-paying jobs that need a bachelor's degree →

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–2035 · BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook →

H-1B sponsored pay

Pay by H-1B wage level

Employers assign every H-1B filing a Department of Labor prevailing-wage level, from Level I (entry) to Level IV (fully competent). Pay rises steeply with level.

H-1B median $60,400
Change vs prior year +2.44%
After inflation (CPI-U) -0.67%
Wage level LCAs Share P25 Median P75
Level I 97 50.5% $50,460 $58,648 $63,500
Level II 23 12% $56,362 $68,901 $72,532
H-1B job titles

Salaries by job title in Special Education Teachers, Middle School

The 3 most-filed job titles inside SOC 25-2057, from 192 H-1B filings. Seniority words and level numbers are grouped (“Senior Data Engineer II” counts as Data Engineer). Tap a title for its full range, wage levels and the exact titles employers used.

Job title LCAs Share P25 Median P75 YoY
Special Education Teacher 94 48.96% $53,013 $61,194 $70,000 +4.66%
Middle School Special Education Teacher 36 18.75% $53,060 $62,000 $69,996 +0%
Teacher 10 5.21% $50,200 $59,324 $63,100 +15.19%

Titles are cleaned from the employer's own LCA text (codes and typos removed, nothing invented). Rows need 10+ filings in this SOC.

Skills & tools

Skills needed for Special Education Teachers, Middle School

How important each skill and knowledge area is for this job, rated by O*NET on a 1–5 scale from surveys of workers and occupational analysts.

Top skills
  • Instructing4.1
  • Learning Strategies4.1
  • Active Learning4.0
  • Active Listening4.0
  • Critical Thinking4.0
  • Monitoring4.0
  • Reading Comprehension4.0
  • Service Orientation4.0
  • Social Perceptiveness4.0
  • Speaking4.0
Top knowledge areas
  • English Language4.3
  • Education and Training4.3
  • Mathematics4.0
  • Administrative3.5
  • Customer and Personal Service3.4
  • Psychology3.4
  • Public Safety and Security3.4
  • Sociology and Anthropology3.2
Software and technology used
Apple macOSMicrosoft ExcelMicrosoft Office softwareMicrosoft OutlookMicrosoft PowerPointMicrosoft SharePointMicrosoft WordBlackboard softwareCommon CurriculumEasyCBMEmail softwareFlipgridGoogle ClassroomHand held spell checkersPadletPear DeckSchoologyScreen magnification software

Highlighted = in demand: frequently listed in employer job postings for this occupation (O*NET).

Source: O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.

About the job

What special education teachers, middle school do

  • 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.
  • Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification and positive reinforcement.
  • Modify the general education curriculum for students with disabilities, based upon a variety of instructional techniques and instructional technology.
  • Employ special educational strategies and techniques during instruction to improve the development of sensory- and perceptual-motor skills, language, cognition, and memory.
Also called
Learning Support TeacherMS SPED Teacher (Middle School Special Education Teacher)SPED Resource Teacher (Special Education Resource Teacher)SPED Teacher (Special Education Teacher)ED SPED Teacher (Emotional Disabilities Special Education Teacher)Interrelated SPED Teacher (Interrelated Special Education Teacher)Learning Disabilities Teacher (LD Teacher)Middle School Resource TeacherSelf-Contained SPED Teacher (Self-Contained Special Education Teacher)SLD Teacher (Specific Learning Disability Teacher)
More job titles for this occupation (29)
Blind TeacherBraille TeacherDeaf TeacherDHOH Teacher (Deaf and Hard of Hearing Teacher)EBD SPED Teacher (Emotional-Behavioral Disabilities Special Education Teacher)Emotionally Impaired TeacherHandicapped TeacherHearing Impaired Teacher (HI Teacher)Intervention TeacherLearning Disabilities Special Education Teacher (LD SPED Teacher)Learning Disabled TeacherLip Reading TeacherMentally Impaired TeacherMiddle School Students with Moderate Intellectual Disabilities TeacherMMI Teacher (Mildly Mentally Impaired Teacher)MS Teacher (Middle School Teacher)Physically Impaired TeacherRemedial Math Teacher (Remedial Mathematics Teacher)Remedial Reading TeacherSAI (Specialized Academic Instructor)School SPED Teacher (School Special Education Teacher)SED Middle School Teacher (Serious Emotional Disability Middle School Teacher)SED Middle School Teacher (Severe Emotional Disorders Middle School Teacher)Sign Language TeacherSpecial Needs TeacherSPED Inclusion Teacher (Special Education Inclusion Teacher)SPED Math Teacher (Special Education Mathematics Teacher)SPED Middle School Teacher (Special Education Middle School Teacher)Visually Impaired Teacher

Source: O*NET 31.0 (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0). These are general job titles, not H-1B filings; for titles employers actually filed, see “Job titles” above.