Teach preschool school subjects to educationally and physically handicapped students. Includes teachers who specialize and work with audibly and visually handicapped students and those who teach basic academic and life processes skills to the mentally impaired.
U.S. Workers
28,200
Median Salary
$62,190
10-Year Growth
+1.4%
Annual Openings
2,100
Typical entry: Bachelor's degree
34 of 36 tasks have some AI capability
Exposure Trend
This score reflects estimated AI technical capability for tasks in this occupation. It does not predict employment changes, and it does not account for company-specific constraints, regulation, or adoption barriers.
Control the inventory or distribution of classroom equipment, materials, or supplies.
AI: Fully automatable - Inventory-management systems powered by AI can track stock, trigger reorders, and coordinate distribution logistics, effectively controlling classroom equipment and supplies.
Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by laws, district policies, or administrative regulations.
AI: Fully automatable - AI and automation can accurately maintain, organize, and generate required student records and ensure compliance with formats and deadlines when integrated with school systems.
Prepare assignments for teacher assistants or volunteers.
AI: Fully automatable - AI can fully prepare detailed, differentiated assignment instructions, schedules, and checklists for teacher assistants or volunteers based on lesson plans and student needs.
Prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration.
AI: Fully automatable - AI can compile logs, analyze activities, and auto-generate administrative reports and narratives from student data and templates with minimal human intervention.
Prepare objectives, outlines, or other materials for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements.
AI: Fully automatable - AI in 2025 can generate curriculum-aligned objectives, outlines and lesson materials quickly and adapt them to guidelines and many special education needs with high fidelity.
Present information in audio-visual or interactive formats, using computers, television, audio-visual aids, or other equipment, materials, or technologies.
AI: Fully automatable - AI can produce and deliver audio-visual and interactive content (videos, apps, slides, adaptive media) and run presentations autonomously using current tools and platforms.
Read books to entire classes or to small groups.
AI: Fully automatable - Advanced text-to-speech, expressive voices and synchronized visuals allow AI to read books aloud to groups in an engaging way without human intervention.
Establish and communicate clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects to students, parents, or guardians.
AI: Fully automatable - AI can reliably draft standards-aligned lesson/unit objectives and parent communications and automate delivery, enabling full automation of this task with oversight.
Modify the general preschool curriculum for special-needs students.
AI: Fully automatable - AI can produce individualized curriculum modifications and differentiated materials based on student profiles and standards, allowing full automation of the modification process.
Arrange indoor or outdoor space to facilitate creative play, motor-skill activities, or safety.
AI: Partial - AI can design optimal layouts and activity plans for play and safety, but cannot physically arrange spaces or respond in-person to dynamic classroom conditions.
Communicate nonverbally with children to provide them with comfort, encouragement, or positive reinforcement.
AI: Partial - AI can coach caregivers on nonverbal strategies and provide virtual/onscreen supportive cues, but cannot fully replicate genuine human nonverbal comfort and touch.
Confer with parents, guardians, teachers, counselors, or administrators to resolve students' behavioral or academic problems.
AI: Partial - AI can analyze data, suggest interventions, and draft communications to support conferences, but cannot fully perform sensitive interpersonal negotiation and build trust in place of humans.
Develop individual educational plans (IEPs) designed to promote students' educational, physical, or social development.
AI: Partial - AI can analyze assessments, propose goals and progress metrics, and draft IEP documents, but final development and legal decisions require human specialists and collaborative meetings.
Attend professional meetings, educational conferences, or teacher training workshops to maintain or improve professional competence.
AI: Partial - AI can curate training materials, summarize conferences, and recommend professional development but cannot genuinely 'attend' or fully replace the experiential and credentialing aspects of human participation.
Collaborate with other teachers or administrators to develop, evaluate, or revise preschool programs.
AI: Partial - AI can generate curricula, analyze program data, and propose revisions, yet real collaboration, consensus-building, and contextual judgment among staff remain human responsibilities.
Confer with parents, administrators, testing specialists, social workers, or other professionals to develop individual education plans (IEPs).
AI: Partial - AI can draft IEP content, suggest accommodations, and synthesize multidisciplinary input, but cannot legally or ethically substitute for the human conferences and decision-making required for IEP development.
Coordinate placement of students with special needs into mainstream classes.
AI: Partial - AI can recommend optimal mainstream placements and generate schedules based on assessments, but coordinating placements requires human judgment, consent, and nuanced interpersonal negotiation.
Meet with parents or guardians to discuss their children's progress, advise them on using community resources, or teach skills for dealing with students' impairments.
AI: Partial - AI can support parent meetings by producing progress summaries, resource lists, and coaching scripts, but sensitive, trust-based conversations and skill training are best led by human professionals.
Organize and display students' work in a manner appropriate for their perceptual skills.
AI: Partial - AI can design and personalize display layouts and materials tailored to students' perceptual needs, but the physical arrangement and on-site adaptation usually require human execution.
Plan and supervise experiential learning activities, such as class projects, field trips, or demonstrations.
AI: Partial - AI can design and plan experiential activities and provide supervision guidance remotely, but cannot reliably perform in-person, real-time supervision, safety management, and hands-on adaptations for preschool special needs students.
Prepare classrooms with a variety of materials or resources for children to explore, manipulate, or use in learning activities or imaginative play.
AI: Partial - AI can recommend materials, generate printable resources and layout plans, but cannot physically prepare or arrange a classroom or ensure accessibility and safety for individual children.
Serve meals or snacks in accordance with nutritional guidelines.
AI: Partial - AI can plan menus, schedule and provide guidance to meet nutritional guidelines, but cannot generally perform the physical serving and hands-on accommodation tasks in preschool settings.
Teach basic skills, such as color, shape, number and letter recognition, personal hygiene, or social skills, to preschool students with special needs.
AI: Partial - AI can deliver and adapt lessons for basic skills and provide practice activities, but cannot fully replace the in-person, individualized instruction and behavioral support required for many preschoolers with special needs.
Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement.
AI: Partial - AI can design behavior-modification plans, prompt reinforcement and monitor behaviors, but cannot reliably implement nuanced in-person reinforcement, modeling, and immediate social-context responses.
Teach students personal development skills, such as goal setting, independence, or self-advocacy.
AI: Partial - AI can coach goal-setting, provide scaffolding and resources for independence and self-advocacy, but cannot fully replicate the relational mentorship and real-world facilitation teachers provide to young children with special needs.
Administer tests to help determine children's developmental levels, needs, or potential.
AI: Partial - AI can administer and score many standardized digital assessments and gather data, but cannot fully replace clinician-led observational assessment and nuanced interpretation for developmental evaluations.
Develop or implement strategies to meet the needs of students with a variety of disabilities.
AI: Partial - AI can generate tailored, evidence-based strategies and IEP suggestions but cannot fully implement them in-person or manage complex real-time adaptations.
Employ special educational strategies or techniques during instruction to improve the development of sensory- and perceptual-motor skills, language, cognition, or memory.
AI: Partial - AI can design and suggest instructional techniques and adaptive materials, but cannot fully execute hands-on, real-time multisensory instruction for preschoolers with disabilities.
Encourage students to explore learning opportunities or persevere with challenging tasks to prepare them for later grades.
AI: Partial - AI can provide prompts, encouragement scripts, and gamified supports, yet cannot fully replicate the nuanced, in-person emotional encouragement and rapport-building crucial for young children.
Establish and enforce rules for behavior and procedures for maintaining order among students.
AI: Partial - AI can propose behavior rules, routines, and behavior-management plans, but cannot physically enforce them or handle live classroom crises.
Instruct and monitor students in the use and care of equipment or materials to prevent injuries and damage.
AI: Partial - AI can create instructional materials, tutorials, and reminders for safe equipment use, but cannot physically monitor or intervene to prevent injuries in real time.
Monitor teachers or teacher assistants to ensure adherence to special education program requirements.
AI: Partial - AI can monitor documentation, schedules, and recorded sessions for compliance and flag issues, but cannot fully replace human supervisory judgment and personnel management.
Observe and evaluate students' performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.
AI: Partial - AI can analyze work samples and video/audio to assist in evaluating performance and behavior, but lacks full situational awareness and clinical judgment for health and nuanced social development.
Organize and supervise games or other recreational activities to promote physical, mental, or social development.
AI: Partial - AI can design, sequence, and provide instructions for games and activities, but cannot physically supervise children's play or manage safety and spontaneous social conflicts.
Attend to children's basic needs by feeding them, dressing them, or changing their diapers.
AI: Not automatable - These are intimate, physical caregiving tasks that AI cannot perform in 2025 and that require human presence and legal responsibility.
Provide assistive devices, supportive technology, or assistance accessing facilities, such as restrooms.
AI: Not automatable - AI can recommend assistive devices or provide guidance but cannot physically provide or personally assist a child accessing facilities like restrooms.