Best Online Master’s in Special Education

Published: Jun 24, 2021
Updated: Sep 8, 2023

Find the top-ranked online master’s in special education degree programs for graduates who want to further their careers in the field of special education.

Top 10 Online Master's in Special Education Degree Programs

University of Virginia
University of Arizona
University of Missouri
Fordham University
University of Cincinnati
Arizona State University
University of Alabama
University of Kentucky
University of Houston
University of Louisville

Marshall University 98%
University of Maine 96%
Old Dominion University 96%
University of Memphis 95%
University of Kentucky 94%
Virginia Commonwealth University 93%
Southern New Hampshire University 92%
Illinois State University 92%
Arizona State University 88%
University of Nevada, Reno 88%

University of North Texas 26 to 1
Florida International University 25 to 1
University of Houston 23 to 1
Southern New Hampshire University 21 to 1
University of Alabama 20 to 1
Texas Tech University 19 to 1
University of Cincinnati 19 to 1
University of Louisville 19 to 1
University of Arkansas 19 to 1
Illinois State University 19 to 1

Fordham University $56,161
University of Virginia $16,547
Eastern Michigan University $15,700
Southern New Hampshire University $15,380
Clemson University $14,118
University of Louisville $12,174
Virginia Commonwealth University $12,094
University of Maine $11,640
University of Kentucky $11,247
University of Arizona $10,990

Fordham University $23,112
Southern New Hampshire University $18,900
University of Virginia $17,674
Eastern Michigan University $16,562
University of Louisville $13,524
University of Cincinnati $13,224
Virginia Commonwealth University $12,618
University of Kentucky $12,311
University of Arizona $12,106
Arizona State University $11,720

Southern New Hampshire University
Tennessee State University
Eastern Michigan University
Old Dominion University
Marshall University
Illinois State University
University of Idaho
University of Memphis
University of Nevada, Reno
Clemson University

University of Virginia 21%
Clemson University 49%
Fordham University 58%
Florida International University 64%
University of Houston 66%
Texas Tech University 68%
University of Louisville 75%
University of Missouri 77%
University of Alabama 79%
University of North Texas 81%

Tennessee State University 12 to 1
Fordham University 13 to 1
University of Virginia 15 to 1
Eastern Michigan University 15 to 1
University of Arizona 15 to 1
University of Idaho 16 to 1
University of Kentucky 16 to 1
University of Memphis 16 to 1
Clemson University 16 to 1
University of Maine 16 to 1

Florida International University $4,721
University of Idaho $6,182
Old Dominion University $7,029
Tennessee State University $7,128
Marshall University $7,190
University of Arkansas $7,666
University of Nevada, Reno $7,923
University of North Texas $8,295
University of Memphis $8,352
University of Houston $8,685

University of Nevada, Reno $5,625
University of North Texas $6,350
Texas Tech University $6,956
Marshall University $7,520
University of Idaho $7,754
Illinois State University $7,805
University of Arkansas $7,875
University of Houston $8,713
Florida International University $8,912
University of Memphis $9,378

Key Takeaways

Special education focuses on addressing the individual differences and needs of students with special needs.
Generally, master’s in special education students may choose a concentration or specialization like teaching a specific age group or disability, such as children with vision impairments or high school students.
The psychological development of a child with learning disabilities is positively affected by the quality and well-designed learning disability education, making the role of special education workers crucial.

Table of Contents

Featured Programs

The Master of Special Education degree, offered at many public and private colleges, is intended for those with bachelor’s degrees who are interested in working with special needs students.

In an online master’s of special education program, students learn about the description and nature of disabilities in children of different ages and the psychological factors affecting these children. Students will learn how to create meaningful learning experiences for these children by applying effective teaching strategies.

Moreover, you can learn how to modify lesson plans for specific disabilities and create accommodations for students. Online special education master’s programs can open more career options and opportunities for you and, at the same time, allow you to have a positive impact on students.

Possible Career Pathways for Online Master’s in Special Education Graduates

Possible career pathways for graduates of online master’s of special education programs include:, you’ll be eligible for many different job positions in a wide range of of diverse industries and organizations. Here are some possible career pathways for graduates of online master’s in special education:

School Principal

Primary, middle, and high school principals oversee staff and operations. Their responsibilities include developing and implementing curriculum, overseeing school budgets, and implementing professional development programs. Furthermore, principals are responsible for adhering to regional and school board policies and standards.

Daycare Center Director

Childcare center directors manage staff and administrative duties. SPED master graduates can specifically work for daycare centers with special needs. They are responsible for implementing policies, handling budgets, and establishing communications. Staff and student support channels must be integrated under local and industry regulations.

Special Education Teacher

A special education teacher leads a classroom of students with varying disabilities. Students are assessed, and special education teachers develop lesson plans. Teachers with valid teaching license in this field provide specialized and attentive support to many student groups.

Education Administrator

Education administrators work with student services, registrars, and admissions offices in schools. Record management, communications, and application management are some of the tasks handled by these professionals.

Key Point: Graduates with an online master of special education degree program are eligible for many different job positions in a wide range of of diverse industries and organizations.

Career Outlook for Online Master’s in Special Education Graduates

The demand for special education teachers is growing due to a growing number of students enrolled in special education programs and the increase in early intervention programs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, special education teacher employment will grow by 4 percent from 2021 to 2031.

Online master’s degrees in special education allow graduates to teach at all levels, including schools below college and university.

Developing policies and practices that are more inclusive can also be part of your role within schools and school boards. The demand for special education programs has grown as disabilities in students are identified earlier, and special education programs are offered frequently in more and more schools.

Why Every Educator Should Study Special Education

Becoming a special educator does not necessarily begin with earning a degree in special education. But with master’s in special education online programs, your earning potential and employment prospects increase. With an MA in Special Education, you can grow personally and professionally.

Here are the reasons why every educator needs to study special education:

Become a More Effective Teacher

When you know how to teach all learners, not only those with disabilities, you understand how they learn. Obviously, special education teachers have a direct impact on teaching students with special needs. However, they can also provide professional advice, support, and mentoring to classroom teachers and school support staff, helping them to set achievable goals for their students based on their strengths and weaknesses.

Explore Other Career Paths

An online special education degree can open up several career opportunities outside the classroom, such as becoming a diagnostician in education, working in a clinical setting, or training school districts or state departments of education in special education best practices.

If you’re knowledgeable about special education, you might also be able to work in roles funded through state-wide programs for people with disabilities, such as case management, program coordination, or nonprofit administration.

Stay Ahead of the Competition

A master’s degree can help you stand out from other applicants, beyond just in applying for special education jobs. Having a Special Education degree indicates that you can teach all students—the gifted, the talented, and those with disabilities.

With inclusion increasing, general education teachers are no longer required to have advanced training in special education, so those who have pursued that additional training will be more competitive in a job search.

Become a Lifelong Learner

Working with all kinds of students is a rewarding line of work. By focusing on person-centered education, you can identify each student’s goals and needs, enabling you to adapt continuously and change. Aside from teaching students, you can also receive lessons from your teaching experiences. Newer educators and experienced teachers can benefit from the new skills and continue to become lifelong learners.

Bottom Line: There are numerous career and personal benefits in pursuing an online master’s degree in special education.

Goals of Special Education

Early childhood is usually the period between birth and five years of age. It is during the children’s first few years that their brain rapidly develops, which is critical to cognitive development.

Because the brain is most impressionable during this time, a child’s developmental path can be changed for the rest of their lives with early childhood special education and early intervention. Early childhood education is often overlooked, but it is vital to a child’s learning regardless of ability. However, helping children with special needs develop their social, and gross motor skills requires additional expertise.

A special education specialist for early childhood provides learning experiences to children with special needs, such as those with disabilities, autism, and down syndrome, through extensive training and certification programs. Here are the four developmental goals of early childhood special education teachers:

Intellectual Development

Early childhood special education emphasizes cognitive and intellectual development. Thinking, reasoning, and understanding are all part of this process.

Physical Development

Some special needs children have difficulty developing their motor skills at the same pace as their peers. Early childhood special education aims to teach kids to be strong and help them develop physically.

Emotional Development

Mood swings are common among toddlers. Children can control themselves during emotional outbursts with the help of early childhood educators.

Social Development

Cognitive and social development influence a child’s overall development. Interacting with peers, forming friendships, and strengthening communication skills are all aspects of peer-to-peer interaction. As part of special education, children learn conflict resolution skills to deal with these interpersonal relationships.

Frequently Asked Questions About Special Education Degrees

Why get a master’s in special education?

Special Education teachers or people with a bachelor’s degree seeking to transition into the field of special education can earn their Master’s degree, which will provide instruction on the best practices for teaching students with different learning styles and educational needs.

What will I learn while getting a master’s in special education?

Classes cover topics such as behavior analysis, IEPs and 504 Plans, and assessment. Most programs require a practicum or field service to earn the degree, and programs take an average of two years to complete.

Is getting a master’s in special education through online classes worth it?

Online students seeking to earn their master’s degrees have more options than ever before. Many high quality universities with excellent teaching programs are now offering fully remote courses.

Online advanced degrees open doors for students seeking to enter top-tier programs while continuing to fulfill existing professional responsibilities.

Learn more about what you can do with a master’s degree in education.

How do we determine the best online special education master's degree programs?

Methodology

Pursuing your degree online doesn’t mean you need to settle for an inferior school. Today, most universities and colleges offer online degrees, and many respected schools are seeing significant growth in their numbers of online students.

The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why influence — i.e., the academic impact of faculty and alumni associated with a school — gets at the heart of what is truly best in education. The combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers is the best indicator of academic excellence. For our online degree rankings, we focus on the academic influence of faculty and alumni in the specific disciplines we’re ranking.

If you are serious about finding the best online colleges, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching, and whether their graduates themselves are advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence. Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Influence, as measured by our InfluenceRanking engine, provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.

Median Salaries of Similar Careers in the U.S.

The following graph depicts the average salaries of similar occupations to Special Education Teachers, Middle School in the U.S.

Source: U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

Annual Salary

67090Special Education Teachers, Kindergarten and Elementary School

68860Special Education Teachers, Middle School

70100Special Education Teachers, Secondary School

71330Special Education Teachers, All Other

71970Special Education Teachers, Preschool

Best Online Master’s in Special Education Degree Programs

#5 Top 20 Best Military Friendly Online Colleges Ranked for 2023 #1 Best Liberal Arts Colleges in New Hampshire 2023 #2 Most Affordable Colleges in New Hampshire 2023 #2 Best Private Colleges in New Hampshire 2023

Other Rankings

Online Degrees

MEd in Curriculum And Instruction

Concentrations

Dyslexia And Language Based Learning Disabilities
Educational Leadership
Online Teaching
Reading
Special Education
Technology Integration

Required Credits: 36
Completion time: None Reported
Format: Online

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Online Degree Frequently Asked Questions

If this is your first time taking an online course, the experience may require some adjustment. While you’ll generally learn the same content and take the same exams as your on-campus peers, the medium will likely require you to manage much of this experience independently. You’ll be accountable for your own time management, your ability to harness the technology at your fingertips, and your ability to focus on the lectures, lessons, and assignments at hand. This means you’ll need to create a suitable workspace for yourself, maintain a realistic schedule, and take it upon yourself to build relationships with your instructors and classmates. With online college, your goal is to find a balance between independence and engagement.

No. The only part of online education that’s easier is actually getting there. Taking the commute out of the equation means getting to class should be a lot more manageable. But that’s where it ends. In general, your online courses will incorporate the very same materials, concepts, and testing methods as would a traditional classroom.

And in many cases, you’ll even have the same instructors as your on-campus counterparts. In fact, if you are adjusting to the experience of independent learning or working with remote learning technology for the first time, online college may even be a little more challenging for you. For a few insights on how to manage this new experience, check out our 10 Tips for Adjusting to School Online.

Accreditation is especially important when it comes to online college. This is because the online education landscape is a mix of highly-reputable institutions and less-than-reputable for-profit schools. Accreditation gives you the power to differentiate between the two. Accreditation is a stamp of approval from an independent accrediting agency which indicates that a college or university is meeting standards of quality, credibility, and currency. School-wide accreditation falls into two major categories: regional and national accreditation. Regional accreditors generally hold jurisdiction only over schools in the states comprising their region, whereas national accreditors hold jurisdiction over schools in all states. Regional accreditation is widely regarded as a more rigorous standard of quality and credibility than national accreditation.

Attending a college or university which is not regionally accredited could limit your opportunities. When seeking an online education, we strongly recommend that students opt for regionally accredited schools. Regional accreditation ensures eligibility for federal loans and grants, ensures your college credits can be transferred between schools, and ensures that your degree credits can be accepted if you wish to earn an advanced degree.

As long as your online college degree is regionally accredited, you should have little difficulty transferring most of your credits or credentials to another regionally accredited undergraduate school. Every school carries its own standards and procedures for granting a transfer. In many cases, you will be required to navigate a bureaucracy in which some of your credits will be transferred and others will be jettisoned. However, provided that you have attended an online school with the proper regional accreditation, you should have plenty of options for transfer.

In most cases, as long you graduate from a well-regarded, regionally-accredited online college, prospective employers won’t look sideways at your degree. In fact, unless you attend an exclusively online college or university, there will likely be no specific indicator on your degree, transcript or resume differentiating your school from its brick-and-mortar counterpart. This means that your employer will likely only differentiate between an online and in-person degree if you mention this distinction.

While some employers may express concern about making the adjustment from online education to in-person workplace collaboration, many other employers will view your online degree as evidence of valuable 21st Century professional skills such as independence, self-motivation, time management, and tech savvy.

If you are a student who thrives on the dynamic energy of in-person discussion, who requires the physical surroundings of a classroom to feel engaged, or who considers the social aspects of education to be of equal importance to the actual content of your courses, online education will require some adjustment.

While there is much that can be supplanted or simulated through the online medium, some students may find that there is nothing which can replace the conversation, collaboration, and motivation that occur in an actual classroom setting. As you make the adjustment to online education, one of the biggest challenges you will likely face is overcoming this difference in order to the get the most out of your classes. Fortunately, we’ve got some great Tips for Online Education Beginners.

The advantages of online classes are many. First and foremost, online courses give you the freedom and flexibility to attend class from anywhere that works for you, whether you’re at home, in a coffee shop, or in a quiet conference room at work. In many cases, you’ll also enjoy the convenience of asynchronous learning opportunities-educational experiences that you can complete on your own schedule. This may include pre-taped lectures, ongoing chat-board discussions, and 24/7 access to digital materials. And of course, just as there are some learners who prefer the energy of a live classroom, there are those who learn best when working in their own personal space, free from distractions. If this sounds like you, you might find the solitude of online learning to be a major advantage.

Whether you’re just getting started on your college search, you’re looking for survival tips on your way to a bachelor’s degree, or you’re preparing for the transition into grad school, we’ve got guides, how to’s and tons of other valuable resources to keep you moving forward in your educational journey.

Best Online Master’s in Special Education

Top 10 Online Master's in Special Education Degree Programs

Key Takeaways

Featured Programs

Possible Career Pathways for Online Master’s in Special Education Graduates

School Principal

Daycare Center Director

Special Education Teacher

Education Administrator

Career Outlook for Online Master’s in Special Education Graduates

Why Every Educator Should Study Special Education

Become a More Effective Teacher

Explore Other Career Paths

Stay Ahead of the Competition

Become a Lifelong Learner

Goals of Special Education

Intellectual Development

Physical Development

Emotional Development

Social Development

Frequently Asked Questions About Special Education Degrees

Why get a master’s in special education?

What will I learn while getting a master’s in special education?

Is getting a master’s in special education through online classes worth it?

Median Salaries of Similar Careers in the U.S.

Best Online Master’s in Special Education Degree Programs

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Online Degree Frequently Asked Questions

What can I expect from an online college course?+

Is online college easier?+

Why does accreditation matter in online college?+

Will I be able to transfer my online college degree?+

Will employers respect my online degree?+

What are the disadvantages of online classes?+

What are the advantages of online classes?+

Resources for Prospective Grad Students