Special Education Teachers, Preschool
Teach academic, social, and life skills to preschool-aged 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.
Most important skills
- Reading Comprehension
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Critical Thinking
- Learning Strategies
- Monitoring
- Social Perceptiveness
- Active Learning
Key knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service
- Education and Training
- English Language
- Administration and Management
- Psychology
- Administrative
- Computers and Electronics
- Sociology and Anthropology
What the work involves
- Arrange indoor or outdoor space to facilitate creative play, motor-skill activities, or safety.
- Attend to children's basic needs by feeding them, dressing them, or changing their diapers.
- Communicate nonverbally with children to provide them with comfort, encouragement, or positive reinforcement.
- Confer with parents, guardians, teachers, counselors, or administrators to resolve students' behavioral or academic problems.
- Develop individual educational plans (IEPs) designed to promote students' educational, physical, or social development.
- Develop or implement strategies to meet the needs of students with a variety of disabilities.
- Employ special educational strategies or techniques during instruction to improve the development of sensory- and perceptual-motor skills, language, cognition, or memory.
- Encourage students to explore learning opportunities or persevere with challenging tasks to prepare them for later grades.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Social, Artistic, Investigative.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- Bachelor's Degree (44.2% of expert ratings)
- Related experience
- None (38.6%)
- On-the-job training
- Over 6 months, up to and including 1 year (34.1%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 4: Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Special Education Teachers, Preschool is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | High | Higher on contact with others than 71% of occupations compared | 63% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Low | Lower on dealing with the public than 69% of occupations compared | 32% of surveyed respondents chose “Important” |
| Teamwork | High | Higher on teamwork than 79% of occupations compared | 65% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Very low | Lower on freedom to make decisions than 89% of occupations compared | 41% of surveyed respondents chose “Limited freedom” |
| Time pressure | Very low | Lower on time pressure than 88% of occupations compared | 41% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a month or more but not every week” |
| Conflict situations | High | Higher on conflict situations than 77% of occupations compared | 34% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a month or more but not every week” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | High | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 66% of occupations compared | 36% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a week or more but not every day” |
| Consequence of error | Very low | Lower on consequence of error than 80% of occupations compared | 35% of surveyed respondents chose “Not serious at all” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: very low
- Conflict situations: high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: high
- Consequence of error: very low
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 0%
- Contact with others about half the time: 0%
- Contact with others most of the time: 37.43%
- Constant contact with others: 62.57%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2026
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 15.72%
- Fairly important: 22.48%
- Important: 31.87%
- Very important: 11.82%
- Extremely important: 18.11%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2026
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 1.81%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 0%
- Very important: 33.61%
- Extremely important: 64.58%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2026
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 1.81%
- Very little freedom: 7.9%
- Limited freedom: 40.83%
- Some freedom: 40.7%
- A lot of freedom: 8.76%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2026
Time pressure
- Never: 14.69%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 0%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 40.99%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 35.28%
- Every day: 9.04%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2026
Conflict situations
- Never: 14.69%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 6.88%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 33.74%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 26.05%
- Every day: 18.63%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2026
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 15.66%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 20.52%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 15.76%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 36.07%
- Every day: 11.99%
n = 24, Incumbent 08/2026
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 35.07%
- Fairly serious: 34.63%
- Serious: 8.92%
- Very serious: 5.4%
- Extremely serious: 15.97%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2026
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O*NET-SOC 25-2051.00 · SOC 25-2051 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8