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Special Education Teacher Resume Examples

A special education teacher resume example with IEP caseloads, FBAs and BIPs, co-teaching results, three levels of summary and the endorsements to list.

What has to be at the top

A special education teacher resume opens with the license and the special education endorsement it carries, then the settings you have taught in (resource, co-taught, self-contained) and the size of your IEP caseload. After that, every job needs one result tied to IEP goals, behavior data or inclusion, written without anything that could identify a student.

The full example

A complete special education teacher resume example

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Why this example works

  • The endorsement is named in the summary and again in the certificates, because a special education vacancy is filled against the endorsement, not the general license.
  • The caseload size and the disability categories in it come before any result: a 15-student resource caseload and a self-contained room of nine are different jobs, and the reader needs to know which one you did.
  • Results use the numbers a special education department already tracks, such as IEP goals met, referrals and time in general education, and no line names a student or pairs a diagnosis with a grade and a first name.
  • The self-contained job keeps two bullets even though it is older. Range across settings is what a director hiring for a hard-to-fill room looks for.

The special education teacher resume example as text

The same content as the sheet above, readable without zooming, so you can copy any line.

Andrea Whitfield
Special Education Teacher, Grades 6–8

Joliet, ILandrea.whitfield@email.com(555) 016-3847

Summary

Special education teacher with six years in resource, co-taught and self-contained classrooms, licensed in Illinois with an LBS I endorsement. 13 of 15 caseload students met their annual reading or math goals last year.

Experience
Special Education Teacher, Resource and Co-Taught Math — Prairie Hollow Middle School, Cedar Grove School District 47Aug 2021 – Present
  • Case-manage 15 students with IEPs (learning disabilities, ADHD, autism) in resource ELA and co-taught math.
  • Write and lead about 15 annual IEP meetings a year with families and therapists; none overdue in four years.
  • Co-teach two seventh-grade math sections; students with IEPs averaged 71% on unit tests, up from 58%.
  • Completed FBAs and wrote BIPs for 4 students; their office referrals fell from 31 to 9 in one year.
Special Education Teacher, Cross-Categorical Self-Contained — Maple Street Elementary School, Kessler Township School District 12Aug 2019 – Jun 2021
  • Taught 9 students in grades 3 to 5 with two paraprofessionals, planning their daily data collection.
  • Moved 6 of the 9 students into general education science and social studies for part of each day.
Education
Master of Science in Education, Reading, Northern Illinois UniversityAug 2021 – May 2023
Bachelor of Science in Special Education, Illinois State UniversityAug 2015 – May 2019
Licenses and certifications
  • Professional Educator License, Learning Behavior Specialist I (LBS I) endorsement, Illinois State Board of Education, Jun 2019
  • Nonviolent Crisis Intervention, Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI), Aug 2025
Skills

IEP development, Progress monitoring, FBA and BIP, Co-teaching, Specially designed instruction, Wilson Reading System

Illustrative. Not a real person and not a real employer.

Summaries

Special Education Teacher resume summary examples by experience level

The summary is the part of a resume that changes most as a career goes on. The same job at three stages, and what each stage leads with.

  • New teacher or former paraprofessional

    Newly licensed special education teacher who spent four years as a paraprofessional in an autism support classroom before finishing an alternative certification program in 2026. Took daily ABC and discrete-trial data for six students, ran the room's visual schedules, and student-taught in a K–2 resource room for 12 weeks.

    Paraprofessional years count as real experience here. Say what data you took and for how many students, then give the student-teaching placement its own line.

  • Experienced special education teacher

    High school special education teacher with seven years in resource and co-taught English, case manager for 18 students with IEPs. Rebuilt transition planning for the caseload so every senior left with a plan and a named adult contact; 11 of 14 graduates were in college, training or work a year later.

    Name the settings and the caseload, then one result that belongs to you: goals met, transition outcomes, time in general education.

  • Department chair or special education coordinator

    Special education department chair with 15 years across self-contained, resource and inclusion settings, National Board Certified as an Exceptional Needs Specialist in Mild/Moderate Disabilities. Supervises 12 teachers and 20 paraprofessionals, cleared a backlog of 23 overdue IEP reviews in one year, and led the move to co-teaching in all four of the district's middle schools.

    Compliance, staffing and program design are the results at this level. Put the size of the team and one compliance number in the summary.

Skills

Skills for a special education teacher resume

Special education postings are searched for acronyms: IEP, FBA, BIP, SDI and the name of the endorsement. Write each term out once with the acronym in parentheses, then use the acronym. The settings and disability categories you have taught belong in the job lines, where they have context, not in this list.

Hard skills

IEPs and compliance

  • IEP development
  • Case management
  • Present levels (PLAAFP) writing
  • Progress monitoring
  • IDEA and Section 504 compliance

Behavior support

  • Functional behavior assessment (FBA)
  • Behavior intervention plans (BIP)
  • De-escalation

Instruction

  • Specially designed instruction
  • Co-teaching
  • Structured literacy
  • Assistive technology
  • Transition planning

Soft skills

  • Patience
  • Collaboration with families
  • Calm under pressure
  • Flexibility
  • Clear written communication
  • Directing paraprofessionals

Name two or three of these in the skills section at most. They count for more when a bullet shows one at work.

Bullet points

Special Education Teacher resume bullet points, before and after

Five lines as people first write them, and the same lines rewritten so the result comes last, where the eye lands. The numbers are illustrative; use your own.

  • Wrote IEPs for students.

    Wrote and managed IEPs for a caseload of 17 students in grades 9 to 12, drafting present levels from curriculum-based measures; 14 of the 17 met at least three quarters of their annual goals.

  • Worked with general education teachers.

    Co-taught two sections of ninth-grade biology with the same general education teacher for three years, splitting the lessons into stations; the pass rate for students with IEPs rose from 52% to 80%.

  • Handled student behavior issues.

    Completed a functional behavior assessment for a fourth grader who left the room several times a day, wrote the behavior plan with the school psychologist, and incidents dropped from 12 a week to 1 within two months.

  • Supervised paraprofessionals.

    Scheduled and trained four paraprofessionals on discrete-trial data sheets and prompting levels; data sheets completed on time went from 55% to 96% in six weeks.

  • Communicated with parents.

    Sent a weekly one-page note on IEP goal progress to every family on a 14-student caseload, in English or Spanish, and all 14 families came to their annual IEP meeting, up from 9 the year before.

Starting every bullet with the same verb? Synonyms for overused resume words →

These bullets are waiting in the editor

When you write your experience in our CV builder, pick "Example phrases" under a job and add the special education teacher bullets from this page in one click. Every number is left as [X], so the figures on your CV are your own.

Beyond experience

Special education licenses and certifications

Special education jobs are posted against an endorsement or a license area, so the credential line has to say which one you hold. States name them differently: in Illinois, for example, it is the Learning Behavior Specialist I (LBS I) endorsement on a Professional Educator License. Copy your state's exact wording.

  • State special education license or endorsement

    The line a district screens on first. Give the license, the endorsement and the state, and mark it "expected" with a month while it is pending. If you also hold a general education license, list both: it is what lets you co-teach content.

    Issued by your state's education department or licensing board

  • Praxis Special Education: Foundational Knowledge (5355)

    An ETS test for people seeking licensure as special educators in grades K–12. Check which Praxis tests your state asks for, and list the ones you have passed while the license is still in progress; once it is issued, the license says enough.

    Issued by ETS

  • National Board Certification, Exceptional Needs Specialist

    For teachers of students with exceptional needs from birth to 21 and older. Candidates choose a specialty area (such as Mild/Moderate Disabilities, Severe and Multiple Disabilities, Deaf/Hard of Hearing or Visual Impairments) and complete a computer-based assessment and three portfolio components. Name the specialty on the resume.

    Issued by National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

  • Crisis prevention training

    CPI's Nonviolent Crisis Intervention is a de-escalation program that schools train staff in. Postings for behavior and self-contained classrooms sometimes ask for it by name, so list it with the month of your last training.

    Issued by Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI)

How to list certifications on a resume →

Template

Which template to use for a special education teacher resume

ATS Pro. Special education applications go through the district's online system and then to a special education director and a principal, so the layout has to serve both. ATS Pro reads as one column of text for the system, and its header and skill tags make a page that holds up at an interview table. It also fits two jobs, two degrees and the license section on one page. If the form wants the resume pasted as plain text, use Basic, which is free to download without our watermark.

What makes a template ATS-friendly →See all templates filled in →

Special Education Teacher resume questions

What should I include in my resume as a special education teacher?

Your license and special education endorsement, the settings you have taught in, your caseload size and the disability categories on it, IEP and behavior work with results, and co-teaching experience. Add crisis prevention or reading program training if the posting mentions it. Education and a short skills list finish the page.

What are the essential skills for a special education teacher?

Writing and running IEPs, progress monitoring, functional behavior assessments and behavior plans, specially designed instruction, co-teaching and assistive technology. On the soft side, principals look for patience, work with families and the ability to direct paraprofessionals. Show the soft skills in bullets rather than naming them.

Should I include IEP details on my resume?

Yes, as numbers: how many IEPs you manage, how many meetings you lead a year, how many students met their goals, and whether reviews were on time. Leave out anything that could identify a student, such as a name, or a diagnosis together with a grade in a small school.

How do I write a special education teacher resume with no experience?

Lead with the license or the expected date, then treat student teaching as a job: the setting, the grades, how many students had IEPs and what you planned or measured. Paraprofessional, behavior technician, camp and tutoring work for students with disabilities all go below it as experience.

Should a special education teacher resume be different from a general teacher resume?

Yes. A general classroom resume is built on class results and subject credentials. A special education resume is built on the endorsement, the caseload, IEP compliance and behavior data, and it needs the acronyms districts search for. If you apply for both kinds of jobs, keep two versions.

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