Will AI replace Teaching Assistants, Special Education?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
17/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 29% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 7% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 27% of the work
What the job involves
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.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(2)
- Tutor and assist children individually or in small groups to help them master assignments and to reinforce learning concepts presented by teachers.
- Use computers, audio-visual aids, and other equipment and materials to supplement presentations.
Within reach(10)
- Provide students with disabilities with assistive devices, supportive technology, and assistance accessing facilities, such as restrooms.
- Observe students' performance, and record relevant data to assess progress.
- Organize and label materials and display students' work in a manner appropriate for their eye levels and perceptual skills.
- Maintain computers in classrooms and laboratories, and assist students with hardware and software use.
- Prepare lesson materials, bulletin board displays, exhibits, equipment, and demonstrations.
and 5 more
Out of reach(18)
- Provide assistance to students with special needs.
- Supervise students in classrooms, halls, cafeterias, school yards, and gymnasiums, or on field trips.
- Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement.
- Instruct and monitor students in the use and care of equipment and materials to prevent injuries and damage.
- Enforce administration policies and rules governing students.
and 13 more
Also called
Paraeducator · Paraprofessional (Para) · SPED Aide (Special Education Aide) · SPED Para (Special Education Paraprofessional) · Para · SPED Aide · SPED Assistant (Special Education Assistant) · SPED Assistant
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics