Will AI replace Special Education Teachers, Secondary School?
Educational Instruction and Library · O*NET 25-2058.00
Task exposure index for this occupation
Averaged across the week, this work sits in the middle of the exposure scale: a real part of it is already automatable and a real part is not. O*NET breaks Special Education Teachers, Secondary School into 35 distinct work activities. Weighted by how much of the week each one takes, 39% of the job sits at or above the threshold where current systems can do the task end to end. The single largest contributor is "Develop strategies or programs for students with special needs", which scores 70 and takes roughly 11% of the week. That is the average for the job title. It is not a measurement of any particular person’s week, and the difference between the two is usually larger than the difference between job titles.
Model v1.2 · activity indices last updated 18 August 2026
What this occupation does
Teach academic, social, and life skills to secondary 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.
The most exposed parts of the job
Scored 0–100 on how completely a current system could perform the activity.
- Maintain student records.95
About 2% of a typical week
- Document lesson plans.95
About 1% of a typical week
- Create technology-based learning materials.85
About 3% of a typical week
- Prepare reports detailing student activities or performance.85
About 2% of a typical week
- Modify teaching methods or materials to accommodate student needs.79
About 3% of a typical week
The least exposed parts
The same scale. These are the activities current systems handle worst.
- Set up classroom materials or equipment.16
About 3% of a typical week
- Assist students with special educational needs.18
About 2% of a typical week
- Encourage students.22
About 3% of a typical week
- Serve on institutional or departmental committees.26
About 2% of a typical week
- Direct activities of subordinates.26
About 2% of a typical week
How far off the rest is
Of those 35 activities, 6 can be performed by systems available today and 10 are outside what current approaches do at all. The remaining 19 sit in between — demonstrated in research or in narrow products, but not something you can hand over whole. We do not put dates on that middle group, because nobody can.
Compared with similar occupations
The nearest scoring roles in Educational Instruction and Library.
- Special Education Teachers, Secondary School (this page)49
- Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education49
- Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School49
- Computer Science Teachers, Postsecondary50
Why your own number is different
Two people with the title "Special Education Teachers, Secondary School" can spend their weeks on almost entirely different parts of this list, and the parts they choose move the number far more than the title does. Who signs off when the work is wrong, whether the job needs you physically present, and how fast you have picked up the tools all change it again — and none of that is in an occupation average.
The assessment asks you to divide your own week across these activities and answer fourteen questions about the parts of the job an occupation average cannot see. It takes six to nine minutes.
Score my own roleFree to take. The full report is a paid subscription — the price and its terms are on the pricing section, before you start.
Questions
Will AI replace Special Education Teachers, Secondary School?
We do not answer that, because nobody can. What is measurable is how much of the work is already doable by machine: for Special Education Teachers, Secondary School, about 39% of a typical week, across 35 activities. The other 61% is not, and what happens to the job depends on things this index does not contain — cost, regulation, who carries the liability, and what the people doing it decide to do next.
What part of this job is most exposed?
"Maintain student records" — it scores 95 out of 100 on task automatability and takes roughly 2% of the week.
What part is least exposed?
"Set up classroom materials or equipment", at 16 out of 100. Work like that is where the hours you protect tend to be worth the most.
Where do these numbers come from?
The activity list and the time weights come from O*NET 30.3, the US Department of Labor's occupational database. The exposure score for each activity is ours, from a published model — the weights, the priors and the limitations are all on the methodology page. No language model is involved in the arithmetic.
Does this apply to my job?
Only roughly. This is the average for the title, and the number that matters is the one for the week you actually work. The assessment asks you to divide your own time across these activities and answer fourteen questions about accountability, the parts of the job that need you specifically, and how fast you have adapted. That produces a different number, and usually a more useful one.
The full model — the weights, the priors and what it cannot see — is on the methodology page.