Job Check
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.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Instruct 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.Mostly human for now
- 02Develop or implement strategies to meet the needs of students with a variety of disabilities.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 03Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement.Mostly human for now
- 04Modify the general elementary education curriculum for students with disabilities.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 05Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by laws, district policies, or administrative regulations.AI could speed this up a lot
- 06Prepare classrooms with a variety of materials or resources for children to explore, manipulate, or use in learning activities or imaginative play.Mostly human for now
- 07Establish and enforce rules for behavior and procedures for maintaining order among students.Mostly human for now
- 08Provide assistive devices, supportive technology, or assistance accessing facilities, such as restrooms.Mostly human for now
- 09Coordinate placement of students with special needs into mainstream classes.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 10Observe and evaluate students' performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.People already use AI for this at work
Tasks from O*NET® 31.0 (US Department of Labor, CC BY 4.0, changed by us), most important first. “Already use” comes from Anthropic’s data on real work chats with Claude; “could speed up” from task ratings made with GPT-4 in 2023.
Four studies, side by side
None is a forecast of job loss32%of this job’s tasks an AI model could do in half the time, counting tasks that need extra tools as half (rated in 2023).Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, 2023
Above 31% of jobsin how much of this job’s physical work robots have been shown to do, from factories to homes (2026).Anthropic, 2026
Your human edge
The main tasks with no real AI use seen and no big speed-up expected. This is where your skill counts most today.
- 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.
- Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement.
- Prepare classrooms with a variety of materials or resources for children to explore, manipulate, or use in learning activities or imaginative play.