Career Explorer Education
Changing shape
Special education teachers, kindergarten and elementary school
Among the careers AI is changing fastest: more resilient than 18% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is high (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it high), and US jobs are projected to change by -0.4% by 2035, expected to shrink. The work leans on creative vision and emotional intelligence.
AI can do many of the tasks, and hiring is expected to grow slower than average or to shrink. The job is likely to change, so build the human parts of it.
- Median pay (2025)
- $65,120
- Job growth to 2035
- -0.4%
- Openings a year
- 16,400
- People doing it (2025)
- 259,000
- Usual route in
- Bachelor's degree
Where people already use AI for this work
- Prepare informational or instructional materials
- Advise others on educational or vocational matters
- Teach life skills
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Develop educational programs, plans, or procedures
- Assess student capabilities, needs, or performance
- Collaborate in the development of educational programs
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Educational instruction and library workers, all otherChanging shape, Index 26, +1.8%
- Preschool teachers, except special educationHuman edge, growing, Index 83, +4.5%
- Farm and home management educatorsChanging shape, Index 23, -3.2%
- Instructional coordinatorsChanging shape, Index 21, +1.6%
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.