Special Education

Special Education Teacher Certification

The Special Education Teacher Certification major allows you the opportunity to teach students with disabilities in grades PreK-12. Within this degree program, you will learn knowledge, skills, and dispositions to teach across various grade levels and disability areas. Areas of expertise that will be covered in this major include:

• Knowledge of special education law and regulations
• Etiology and eligibility of various disabilities
• Accommodations and modifications to meet diverse learning needs
• Specific teaching strategies to enhance the academic, social, and functional growth of students with disabilities

Degree Requirements Degree Works

Note: Degree requirements effective for enrolled students beginning Fall 2023. All enrolled students, including matriculating students prior to Fall 2023, can review their degree program requirements and track progress to degree completion with our degree audit and advisement tool, Degree Works.

General Education Requirements

Commonwealth University requires a minimum of 45 hours of general education. Many general education courses are prescribed to meet teacher certification requirements in a time-efficient manner. To meet Pennsylvania teacher certification requirements, special education majors must have six credits of:

• College-level mathematics
• College-level English comprised of composition and literature

The Special Education minor is designed for students in secondary education, elementary education, or early childhood education, but can be valuable to other majors such as social work, recreation, and psychology.  The minor is intended to provide you with an area of expertise but does not lead to special education certification.

Topics covered include:

• Foundations of Special Education
• Effective Instructional Strategies for Students with Disabilities in Inclusive Settings
• Positive Behavior Supports

Upon completion of this program, students will perform the competencies required by the accrediting bodies, some of which include (directly from PDE):

• Describe major considerations related to identifying individuals with disabilities and assess the individuals properly.
• Identify and differentiate learner differences within each disability category based on a student’s level of functioning rather than classification.
• Demonstrate understanding of the legal rights and responsibilities of the teacher for special educational referral and evaluation and the rights and procedural safeguards that students are guaranteed.
• Demonstrate an understanding of over-representation of minorities in special education so as to not misinterpret behaviors that represent cultural, linguistic differences as indicative of learning problems.
• Identify and use specialized resources in order to implement specially designed instruction for individuals with disabilities.
• Recommend and use evidence-based trauma informed practices validated for specific characteristics of learners and settings.
• Apply prevention and intervention strategies for individuals at-risk for academic or behavioral failure.
• Implement multiple approaches to learning.
• Demonstrate knowledge of and competence in understanding the social characteristics of PK-4 students.
• Effectively apply the principles and theories of child development.
• Implement lessons based on early childhood education foundations, theory, and policy.
• Demonstrate understanding of the way in which classroom environments influence children's learning.
• Plan, implement, and adapt, for all children, developmentally, culturally and linguistically appropriate instructional practices and strategies.