How To Become A Special Education Administrator: What It Is and Career Path

What is a special education administrator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Albert Boerema

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a special education administrator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $34.18 an hour? That's $71,102 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 5% and produce 14,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a special education administrator?

Albert Boerema

Professor of Education, Calvin University

A career as an educational leader can be extremely rewarding, as well as extremely challenging. While learning the necessary leadership skills is important, my central advice for being successful as a school leader is to understand what your shadow mission is and to find ways of not letting it derail you from the work of leading. By shadow mission (Overcoming your Shadow Mission, John Ortberg) I mean that drive that is slightly off our authentic mission. While an authentic mission is to serve as an educational leader, coordinating the work of a school team or community, a shadow mission can be pursuit of wealth, or acclaim, or power and control. Everyone has a shadow mission. When that shadow mission is challenged, we react in ways that limit our ability to truly lead. An important part of leadership development is becoming aware of one's shadow mission and developing strategies to not let it deflect you from the true task.

ScoreSpecial Education AdministratorUS Average

Salary

5.6

Avg. Salary $71,102

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

10.0

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.70%

Asian 4.26%

Black or African American 11.96%

Hispanic or Latino 13.71%

Unknown 3.98%

White 65.38%

Gender

female 71.98%

male 28.02%

Age - 47

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 47

Stress level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a special education administrator

Explore special education administrator education requirements

Most common special education administrator degrees

Bachelor's

57.9 %

Master's

18.5 %

Associate

15.4 %

Start to develop specific special education administrator skills

Skills	Percentages
IEP	14.91%
Education Programs	9.90%
Public Schools	9.45%
Event Logistics	8.84%
K-12	7.95%

Complete relevant special education administrator training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New special education administrators learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a special education administrator based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real special education administrator resumes.

Research special education administrator duties and responsibilities

Establish operating policies and procedures and attain SNF Medicare certification.
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Coordinate HIV education services with schools and other agencies.
Provide education to patients and families in HIV clinic on medications, health and risk reduction.

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