Jobs / Education and social services / 25-9043.00
Teaching Assistants, Special Education
Assist a preschool, elementary, middle, or secondary school teacher to provide academic, social, or life skills to students who have learning, emotional, or physical disabilities. Serve in a position for which a teacher has primary responsibility for the design and implementation of educational programs and services.
- US jobs
- Not reported by BLS
- Job family
- Education and social services
Can agents do the work of teaching assistants, special education?
We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Education and social services:
- Task levelUnexploredNo task-level benchmark in our collection tests teaching, counseling, or casework.
- Project levelPartialThin, adjacent evidence only. GDPval, which spans 44 occupations, is the one benchmark in our collection mapped here. OpenAI reports that GPT-5.5's deliverables won or tied against professionals' work in 84.9% of comparisons across all GDPval occupations. No benchmark tests work with students or clients.
Benchmarks for the job family
These cover work in education and social services, not always this occupation's tasks.
Typical tasks
From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.
- Provide assistance to students with special needs.
- Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement.
- Supervise students in classrooms, halls, cafeterias, school yards, and gymnasiums, or on field trips.
- Provide students with disabilities with assistive devices, supportive technology, and assistance accessing facilities, such as restrooms.
- Carry out therapeutic regimens, such as behavior modification and personal development programs, under the supervision of special education instructors, psychologists, or speech-language pathologists.
- Tutor and assist children individually or in small groups to help them master assignments and to reinforce learning concepts presented by teachers.
- Employ special educational strategies or techniques during instruction to improve the development of sensory- and perceptual-motor skills, language, cognition, or memory.
- Enforce administration policies and rules governing students.
- Observe students' performance, and record relevant data to assess progress.
- Instruct and monitor students in the use and care of equipment and materials to prevent injuries and damage.
- Present subject matter to students under the direction and guidance of teachers, using lectures, discussions, supervised role-playing methods, or by reading aloud.
- Discuss assigned duties with classroom teachers to coordinate instructional efforts.
Other job titles for this occupation (27)
Assistant Instructor · Co-Teacher · Educational Assistant · Paraeducator · Paraprofessional (Para) · SPED Aide (Special Education Aide) · SPED Para (Special Education Paraprofessional) · SPED TA (Special Education Teacher Assistant) · TA (Teacher's Assistant) · Teacher's Aide · Basic Skills Improvement Program Instructional Aide (BSIP Instructional Aide) · Classroom Paraprofessional · Early Childhood SPED PARA (Early Childhood Special Education Paraprofessional) · Education Support Professional · Special Needs Para (Special Needs Paraprofessional) · Special Programs Instructional Assistant · Specialized Programs TA (Specialized Programs Teacher Assistant) · SPED Assistant (Special Education Assistant) · SPED Assistant (Special Educational Assistant) · SPED Associate (Special Education Associate) · SPED Classroom Aide (Special Education Classroom Aide) · SPED Instructional Aide (Special Education Instructional Aide) · SPED Instructional Assistant (Special Education Instructional Assistant) · SPED Paraeducator (Special Education Paraeducator) · SPED TA (Special Education Teaching Assistant) · SPED Teacher Aide (Special Education Teacher Aide) · TA (Teaching Assistant)