Special Education Teacher Salary in Texas 2026,
$62,330 Median | BLS Data by City

The published Texas figure is $62,330 a year per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 4.3% below the national median of $65,120. BLS reports this occupation on an annual basis and publishes no hourly wage for it. The band runs $50,030 at the 10th percentile to $74,240 at the 90th, but the middle is tight: only about five thousand six hundred dollars separates the 25th percentile at $60,390 from the 75th at $65,990, which is what district salary schedules produce.

Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands at $65,080, then Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington $64,830, El Paso $64,000, McAllen-Edinburg-Mission $62,600 and San Antonio-New Braunfels $62,230. Under three thousand dollars separates the top from the fifth, because Texas district schedules and local stipends compress geographic variation far more than a market-set occupation would.

Through the State Board for Educator Certification, administered by the Texas Education Agency, which issues the Special Education EC-12 certificate. The two main routes are a university educator preparation programme or one of the state's alternative certification programmes, both followed by the required content and pedagogy examinations. Texas leans on alternative certification more than nearly any other state, and in special education particularly — many teachers enter on an intern or probationary certificate and complete the programme while already teaching.

Scale and structure together. Texas holds roughly 21.8% of the occupation's national employment at a location quotient of 2.4 — the highest concentration on any of these tables — which is more than the state's population share alone would explain. Part of it is a large, young public school enrolment; part is how Texas staffs and classifies special education services; and part is the accessibility of alternative certification, which allows the state to fill a chronically hard-to-staff field faster than states with narrower entry routes.

Texas teachers participate in the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, and in most Texas districts that is instead of Social Security rather than in addition to it. The practical implications are significant when comparing offers: contribution rates, vesting and the eventual benefit differ from a Social Security-covered position, and teachers who move between Texas and other states — or between teaching and other work — need to understand how their contributions interact. It is not a tax question, but it belongs in any honest comparison of a Texas district salary schedule against another state's.

Because pay is set administratively rather than by negotiation. Texas districts publish salary schedules based on years of creditable service, with the certification held and any stipends layered on top, and an individual teacher's position on that schedule is largely determined the day they are hired. When an entire occupation is paid this way the percentile ladder flattens in the middle — hence $60,390 at the 25th percentile and $65,990 at the 75th — and the visible variation comes from the ends: intern-certificate first-year teachers below, and long-service teachers with stipends and specialist roles above.

The wage row anchors on kindergarten and elementary special education, so secondary special education is not fully described by it. More importantly, the figure is a contract-year salary for work that in special education routinely extends beyond contract hours — individualised education programme meetings, documentation and parent contact are substantial and are not separately paid. Local district stipends for hard-to-staff assignments also vary a great deal across Texas and are absorbed into the reported figure without being visible in it.

District and schedule position, first: choosing a district with a higher schedule and stronger stipends is worth more than any individual action, and Texas districts differ substantially. Then years of creditable service, which advances the schedule mechanically. Then stipends attached to hard-to-staff assignments — behaviour support and life-skills classrooms commonly carry them. Then additional certification, particularly the educational diagnostician route, which is the main way out of the classroom band and toward the $74,240 ninetieth percentile. Extra-duty assignments add on top of all of it.