Occupation: 25-2050

Special Education Teachers, Elementary School

Teach academic, social, and life skills to elementary 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.

Experience Requirements Overview

  • Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
  • A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
  • Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
  • Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Education, Training and Experience

Required Level of Education: Bachelor's Degree

Related Work Experience: Over 6 months, up to and including 1 year

On-Site or In-Plant Training: Up to and including 1 month

On-the-Job Training: Over 6 months, up to and including 1 year

Detailed Work Activities

  • Administer tests to assess educational needs or progress.
  • Attend training sessions or professional meetings to develop or maintain professional knowledge.
  • Collaborate with other teaching professionals to develop educational programs.
  • Collaborate with other teaching professionals to develop educational programs.
  • Collaborate with other teaching professionals to develop educational programs.

Tasks

  • Instruct students with disabilities in academic subjects, using a variety of techniques, such as phonetics, multisensory learning, or repetition to reinforce learning and meet students' varying needs.
  • Develop or implement strategies to meet the needs of students with a variety of disabilities.
  • Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement.
  • Modify the general elementary education curriculum for students with disabilities.
  • Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by laws, district policies, or administrative regulations.

Work Styles

Achievement/Effort

Job requires establishing and maintaining personally challenging achievement goals and exerting effort toward mastering tasks.

Persistence

Initiative

Leadership

Cooperation

Concern for Others

Social Orientation

Self-Control

Stress Tolerance

Adaptability/Flexibility

Dependability

Attention to Detail

Integrity

Independence

Innovation

Analytical Thinking

Data Source: This page includes information from the O*NET 30.0 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. This page includes Employment Projections program, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.