High Demand for Special Education Teachers Drives Salaries Higher
Danitza Galvan knew she needed a master’s in special education to earn the pay she sought.
“I was generally dissatisfied with the jobs available with my bachelor’s degree,” says Galvan, a veteran teacher who has led classrooms in public schools, private Montessori schools, and Head Start facilities. “My husband had just retired, and it was time for me to support the family. I decided I needed a special education master’s degree to ensure we could maintain our quality of life.”
She found the perfect outlet in Portland State University’s online Early Intervention Special Education master’s degree program. A growing field with an abundance of job vacancies, early intervention special education (EISE) offered Galvan the high pay and growth potential she was seeking.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the average special education teacher salary with a master’s degree is about $63,000 nationwide. That salary is about $5,000 (or 7 percent) higher than the average special education teacher salary, and about $9,000 (14 percent) higher than the average salary for all teachers.
Pay for special education teachers is slightly higher in Oregon, which has the second-highest median special education teacher salary in the country (trailing only Connecticut).
“Our graduates are getting hired almost immediately,” says Hollie Hix, coordinator of the online EISE programs at Portland State University. “In the last two cohorts who completed the online EISE program, we have seen 100 percent employment.”
Here are three reasons why early intervention special education teacher salaries are rising
Early intervention special educators teach very young children (age birth to 3 years) with developmental delays and disabilities. A large body of research has shown that early intervention greatly increases children’s potential to transition from special ed programming to the general school population.
According to Hix, early intervention special education salary growth is being driven by three major trends:
- Larger investment in EISE. “Administrators are spending more on early intervention because it saves money in the long run,” says Hix. According to the Portland-based Children’s Institute, EISE reduced the state of Oregon’s expenditures on special education for kindergartners by $4 million in the 2014-15 school year.
- Better diagnostic tools. “The number of kids being served by EISE is going way up,” Hix says. “We have better screenings that can identify developmental challenges in very young children, and pediatricians and parents are more aware of them.” As a result, there are more kids in the system—and a higher demand for EISE teachers.
Shortage of teachers. The Children’s Institute reports that less than a third of children eligible for EISE receive the recommended level of services. “Caseloads are increasing so rapidly that there aren’t enough qualified teachers to meet the demand,” says Hix. In addition, mid-career EISE teachers are getting promoted from the classroom into administrative positions as EISE programs grow.
With Online Special Education Graduate Degrees, You Save Money and Time
Taken together, these three trends have created a wealth of opportunities for graduates of the EISE master’s degree program—and a corresponding growth in early intervention special education teacher salaries.
Galvan wouldn’t have a chance to pursue those opportunities without PSU’s online format. She’s completing the EISE master’s degree from her home in Bandon, Oregon, about 250 miles south of Portland. In addition, the online courses enable her to continue working as a teacher while she completes the EISE master’s degree.
“If it weren’t for the online option, I wouldn’t be able to get this degree,” she says. “But I feel very connected. The faculty are supportive and accessible, and I feel very satisfied with the communication and the professional mentoring.”