{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/special-education-teachers-all-other/", "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology", "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.", "scored_at": "2026-08-11", "model": "claude-opus-5", "occupation": { "title": "Special Education Teachers, All Other", "soc_code": "25-2059", "category": "Education", "us_employment": 33930, "median_annual_wage": 76580 }, "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 74, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 13, "embodiment": 15, "liability_shield": 13, "trust_premium": 17, "judgment_accountability": 16 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "IEP goal-bank drafting, progress-monitoring graphs, quarterly narrative reports and accommodation matrices are already being generated by district software, which pulls this below 14 — but the residual duties (running a discrete-trial session, prompting a student through a job-site task at a grocery store, physically blocking a self-injurious behavior) have no digital substitute, so it does not fall into the mixed-to-automatable range either.", "embodiment": "Hand-over-hand instruction, toileting and feeding support, CPI/Safety-Care physical restraint and escort holds, and itinerant travel between school sites, hospital rooms, group homes and community job placements put this above the 13 threshold; it stops short of 18 because a meaningful share of the week is still classroom-based and in a building the employer controls.", "liability_shield": "A state teaching licence with a special education endorsement is mandatory and revocable, and under IDEA the teacher signs as a required IEP team member whose written statements become the evidentiary record in a due-process hearing — but the district, not the teacher, is the named respondent in those hearings and carries the damages, which is why this sits at 13 rather than the 17-plus of professions where personal malpractice exposure attaches.", "trust_premium": "Parents of students with low-incidence disabilities follow specific teachers across grade levels and program placements, and a nonverbal student's ability to work at all often depends on one adult who has learned that student's idiosyncratic communication and behavioral triggers over months — the person is not interchangeable, which is what separates this from ordinary instructional roles.", "judgment_accountability": "Calling whether a behavior is a manifestation of disability under IDEA's discipline provisions, deciding when to restrain versus clear the room, judging whether an 18-year-old is ready for supported competitive employment or a sheltered setting, and choosing which goals to abandon on a transition plan are unscripted decisions with legal and life-course consequences; it holds at 16 rather than higher because these are made in a team structure with an administrator and related-service providers signing alongside." }, "rationale": "This residual category covers special education teachers outside the standard preschool/elementary/middle/secondary buckets — itinerant specialists, adult transition and vocational instructors, hospital and residential program teachers. The paperwork layer (IEP drafting, progress-note narratives, accommodation checklists, lesson differentiation) is squarely in AI's wheelhouse, but the core job is physically managing behavior, delivering hand-over-hand instruction, de-escalating crises, and sitting across from families in legally consequential IEP meetings. State licensure with special education endorsement plus IDEA's procedural due-process regime keeps a named, liable human in the chair.", "outlook": "Headcount holds or grows on rising identification rates and chronic vacancies; the documentation half of the day shrinks sharply, which mostly buys back time rather than cutting jobs.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "State education agencies or OSEP guidance requiring that any AI-generated IEP content (goals, present-levels narratives, accommodation lists) be reviewed and personally attested by the named case-manager holding the special education endorsement — mirroring the 2024-25 wave of state guidance (e.g. California, Ohio, Washington AI-in-education guidance) that already says AI may not author IEP decisions. A rule making that attestation a due-process defect if absent would harden it into a signature requirement.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "Due-process hearing officers or a federal circuit holding that an IEP substantially drafted by AI without documented individualized human judgment is a procedural violation under IDEA, creating compensatory-education liability — one published decision would force districts to name and log a human author per document.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 2 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Task-mix shift: this role genuinely has two tiers. If IEP drafting, progress narratives, and differentiation planning are absorbed by district-licensed tools (PowerSchool, Frontline AI features already marketed for this), the residual day is crisis de-escalation, hand-over-hand instruction, transition-site job coaching, and adversarial parent meetings — all low-substitutability.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "embodiment", "change": "Caseload reallocation toward the most physically involved students — restraint/seclusion-trained itinerant staff, hospital and residential placements, feeding and toileting support — as lighter-touch consultative caseloads are consolidated with AI planning support. Also state restraint-and-seclusion laws requiring a trained, physically present licensed adult.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 2 }, { "dimension": "trust_premium", "change": "Parent-driven insistence on a human case manager, expressed through IEP-team composition demands and advocacy groups (COPAA has already raised AI-drafted IEPs); if districts adopt contract language guaranteeing a named human case manager per student, the premium is institutionalized.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 1 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "Formal designation as the accountable decision-maker for placement-restrictiveness and behavior-intervention-plan calls — e.g. district policy requiring the endorsed teacher, not an algorithmic risk score, to authorize a change in least-restrictive-environment placement.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 2 } ], "ceiling_note": "Already 74 with trust and judgment near the top; realistic headroom is in the high 70s to low 80s. The main downward pressure is not automation of the core role but funding-driven caseload expansion — one teacher covering more students with AI paperwork support, which shrinks headcount without changing the score." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 37980, "wage": 54800 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 36800, "wage": 56680 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 35600, "wage": 61190 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 32950, "wage": 62820 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 38000, "wage": 61720 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 42780, "wage": 63950 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 43700, "wage": 67190 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 39350, "wage": 67430 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 33930, "wage": 76580 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": -10.7, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }