10 Cheapest Online Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Special Education

The discovery that a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education may not be enough for you to become an Early Childhood Special Educator can be heartbreaking. Don’t let it deter you from your desire to help students with special disabilities, however. With an online master’s degree in Early Childhood Special Education, you will fulfill your desire. See the cheapest online degrees you can take.

Becoming an Early Childhood Special Education Teacher is one of the most fulfilling careers you can choose. However, the career path is as rigorous as other careers that make a difference. In addition to getting a license as a teacher, some states will require you to have a master’s degree in Early Childhood Special Education.

The easiest way to navigate through this degree is by choosing an online school. Therefore, this post will show you the cheapest online master’s degrees you can gain in Early Childhood Special Education. But we will explain the Early Childhood Special Education discipline to help you get comprehensive knowledge on the subject. You will learn about the ECSE career and get other vital information about the field.

What is Early Childhood Special Education?

Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) is the education students with developmental delays and disabilities receive. It is an educational service that the government – in most developed countries – makes available to young children either from the age of kindergarten or between the ages of three and five.

The law in the USA requires school districts to put in place and make available developmentally appropriate ESCE programs and services. ECSE programs and services provide all children with disabilities with a free and public education (FAPE) that meets their unique needs and helps them gain knowledge and skills, improve their social relationships, and learn to take action to meet their needs within the general education program.

Child Care institutions, Public Schools, or even Private Homes require professionals to administer ESCE to their children with special disabilities. These professionals are Early Childhood Special Educators or Teachers. To become one, you must have the right educational qualification, certification, and experience.

What do You Need to Become an Early Childhood Special Educator?

To start your career as an Early Childhood Special Educator, you need to first complete an undergraduate degree in education and special education. If you don’t have a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, you can still begin your career in Early Childhood Special Education. There are some states in the United States that offer an alternative licensing program in special education if you have a bachelor’s degree in a discipline other than teaching.

However, some states and employers are not content with a bachelor’s degree. You would need a master’s degree in special education to teach students with special disabilities.

Meanwhile, a Special Education Degree will focus on overcoming the challenges of teaching special needs students. Thus, you will complete coursework in instructional strategy, classroom management, social-emotional learning, and assessments. You will also learn how to use assistive technology and specialized software programs.

After your education, you must get a license to teach special needs children in either public or private schools.

ECSE License

The License to teach children with special needs is state-specific or specific to school district jurisdiction. Before we explain how you can get this license, you must understand that there are general licenses and specific disability licenses. The general license allows you to work with students with different kinds of disabilities, while the other kind allows you to work with students with a specific category of disability.

Moving on, to gain a license to teach children with special needs, you must check the requirements for your state. For some states, the moment you graduate from a bachelor’s program, you are good to start teaching under the supervision of an experienced teacher. For other states, however, you must complete a student-teaching program that can take anywhere from one to two years to complete.

Still, know what your state requires, then follow the requirements.

Why is it Important to Get a Master’s in Early Childhood Special Education?

Like we have stated very briefly in the section explaining what you need to do to become an early childhood educator, a master’s in Early Childhood Special Education is a compulsory requirement to be able to teach students with special needs in some states.

It bears mentioning here for clarity that this is true. Not only do some states require this of you, but also some employers. So, to become more employable, you will need to add a Master’s in Early Childhood Special Education to your already acquired Bachelor’s degree.

If you are already panicking about pausing your work and family responsibilities to return to the four walls of college to resume studies, panic no more! The good news for you is that there exists an extensive collection of online Master’s Degrees in Early Childhood Special Education which you can enroll in.

The beauty of the online master’s ECSE degree is that it offers you flexibility, convenience, and access to quality online resources. While some do not lead to teaching certification, others give their In-State students Stae Teaching Certification.

Types of ECSE Master’s Degree

Colleges in the United States generally offer two kinds of Master’s degrees in Early Childhood Special Education. They are the Master of Science (M.S.) in ECSE and the Master of Education (M.Ed.) in ECSE.

The Master of Science ECSE degree program prepares you for research-focused job positions in Early Childhood Special Education.

On the other hand, the Master of Education ECSE degree program prepares you specifically for a classroom teaching job position in Early Childhood Special Education.

Instances that Require an ECSE Master’s Degree

Whether you would need a master’s in ECSE or not depends on your career goals and educational needs.

Here are some goals or education needs that will warrant you to take a master’s in ECSE:

• Broadening Your Scope. You are already a licensed teacher with an associate’s degree in teaching. However, after meeting an autistic student in another classroom, you realized you would love to become a Special Education teacher to serve your students better.
• High Drive to Help Children with Special Disabilities. You have children with special needs and have always wanted to teach. Now, you have realized that special needs children can benefit from one-on-one teaching and would like to help these children in classroom settings.
• Change of Career. You have a master’s degree already in counseling, and you realize what you want to do instead is work with students with special needs.
• Adding Skill and Competence. You are already working satisfactorily as a librarian, but you want to be able to work directly with students with developmental disabilities and behavioral problems in your field of work.

What Should You Look Out for in Online ECSE Degrees?

We’ve been telling you with a little voice that you can get an online master’s degree in Early Childhood Special Education. Now, in this section, we are screaming it out loud! There are online Master’s Degrees in Early Childhood Special Education available for you.

However, don’t just enroll in anyone you see or hear about. It would help if you were on the lookout for the following:

• Accreditation. Ensure your online Master’s degree program in Early Childhood Special Education has accreditation. Relevant ECSE accreditation is by either the National Association for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) or The National Commission for the Accreditation of Special Education Services (NCASES). NCASES accredits private special education programs by supporting their processes and practices that create a conducive learning environment.
• Specialization Option. Because you may need to work with a specific kind of special needs children, you must consider this. Choose an online ECSE Master’s degree program that will allow you to specialize or complete certification requirements for a particular area of special education.
• Community Collaboration Opportunities. This aspect is key to students taking M.S. in ECSE for research purposes. If you would like to work on special projects that will involve community leaders, social workers, etc., ensure that your online master’s program provides you the opportunity to make connections and networks within the community to enhance your goal.
• Affordability. Cost is significant when considering an online study option. It is one of the crucial reasons people choose the option against traditional learning. Pick a quality online master in ECSE that meets your pocket. We will help you in this aspect, though. The entire post is dedicated to this!

What Careers are Available for Early Childhood Special Education?

The primary career path for you taking an Early Childhood Special Education Degree is to become an ECSE Educator or teacher.

However, the ESCE field is not that small. There are also specific other job roles you can play in the area. Some of them are:

Childcare Center Director – responsible for the daily operational activities of daycare, preschool, or other childcare centers.

Home-Based Service Provider. This position is like a nanny position. You will provide safe and educational surroundings for special needs children. This involves planning activities that suit their development, ensuring they get the proper nutrition, and communicating their development progress and growth to their parents.

Family Support Specialist – providing families with relevant information and assistance to overcome the challenges of raising a child or children with special needs.

Consultant – helping public and private organizations develop programs, regulations, and policies that promote childcare.

Researcher – responsible for conducting studies, evaluating services, and appraising educational practices that relate to the development of children with special needs.

Sales Representatives. What better way to market and sell products educators and caregivers of special needs children need to support the development of these children than doing it with full knowledge of the discipline?

How Much do Early Childhood Special Education Teachers Earn?

Early Childhood Special Education Teachers fall under the broad category of “Teachers.” However, because they center on children at their developmental stage, they further fall under the “Preschool Teachers.” Hence, we will first show you what Preschool teachers earn.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Preschool teachers in the USA earn an annual average of $29,780. However, there were 523,600 jobs available for such teachers in the USA in 2018, and this trend will increase by 7% between 2018 and 2028.

Specifically, according to BLS, Special Education Teachers earn an annual average of $61,610. Furthermore, Special Education Teachers teaching at Elementary and Secondary Schools earn $58,670, Child Daycare Services earn $72,570 and Individual and Family Services earn $61,900.

BLS went further to analyze the states in the USA with the most significant number of employment and annual mean wage for Special Education Teachers.

The top five states are:

State	Employment	Annual Mean Wage
New York	4,860	$83,010
Minnesota	1,490	$62,810
California	1,470	$47,870
Florida	1,230	$50,120
Ohio	1,100	$64,790

Most specifically, Glassdoor gives the annual salary estimate for Early Childhood Special Education Teachers. Not Preschool Teachers or Special Education Teachers. According to them, the Early Childhood Special Education Teacher earns $52,727 yearly, with those working with Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia, earning as much as $90,454 yearly.

You may also be interested in any of these 10 Cheapest Online Masters Degree in Elementary Education if you want to be an Elementary Education Teacher.

What are the Specializations in Special Education?

It bears mentioning here that Special Education is the parent discipline of Early Childhood Special Education. Thus, Early Childhood Special Education is a specialty under Special Education.

Other specializations which you can go into include;

• Emotional Disturbance (ED). Here, you will deal with students with difficulty concentrating, focusing, and completing tasks.
• Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Students you’ll deal with here have difficulty communicating and interacting with others. They also have restricted interests and repetitive behaviors.
• Gifted/Talented Education (GT). Here, you will deal with outstanding talents who show signs of high levels of accomplishment compared to their peers. 
• Mild/Moderate Disabilities or Severe Disabilities. Students under this category have learning disabilities, emotional problems, and higher-functioning disabilities.

Now that you have comprehensive knowledge about Early Childhood Special Education let’s show you the cheapest online master’s degree you can take for any reason.

Where Can You get the Cheapest Online ECSE Master’s Degree?

The following schools offer the cheapest online Early Childhood Education Master’s Degree:

• Northwestern State University of Louisiana
• University of Nebraska
• University of Missouri (Mizzou Online)
• Indiana University
• West Chester University
• University of Northern Colorado
• University of Colorado – Denver
• Northern Arizona University
• Ohio University
• Capella University

We will discuss these schools’ online ECSE Master’s degree programs in the next section.

Note

The tuition fees we have listed are accurate and verified from the program page of the different programs. However, most of the fees needed additional calculations as the tuition we sampled is for the program’s total cost, whereas some schools were displaying tuition cost per credit hours.

Thus, where the credit hour requirement is within a range (e.g., 33-45), we took the average of the range of figures and multiplied it by the tuition per credit hour to arrive at the total tuition for the duration of the program.

#1. Northwestern State University of Louisiana

The Northwestern State University of Louisiana (NSU) offers the cheapest online Master of Education in Special Education. NSU’s M.Ed. program in special education provides you with the knowledge and skills to facilitate student achievement in the field. It takes 36 semester hours to complete this certification and earn an M.Ed if you’re a certified teacher.

Furthermore, the curriculum for NSU’s master’s in Special Education comprises of 12-hours of educational foundation. The other 24 hours of coursework concentrates on application areas such as Gifted Education, Early Intervention, Elementary (grades 1-5), Mild/Moderate Special Education, or Middle School (grades 4-8), and Secondary (grades 6-12) Mild/Moderate Special Education.

Although the program grants certification in Special Education, you will not get a Louisiana Teaching Certificate if you complete the online degree outside of Louisiana.

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Are you considering an Educational Psychology specialization with your degree? Then you should see these 10 Best Online Degrees in Educational Psychology

#2. University of Nebraska Online

The second cheapest online Master’s Degree in Special Education you will find in the USA is the University of Nebraska Online program. The University of Nebraska – Lincoln’s (UNL) Special Education online Master’s degree specializes in Early Childhood Education.

The beauty of this 36-semester credit online program is that you can choose between an MA and an M Ed. By this, you can complete your ECSE program with or without pursuing an ECSE teaching endorsement.

Also, this program increases your ability to provide services for young children with delays/disabilities and their families. The services you’ll be able to provide after this program will be unique because they will be family-centered, comprehensive, interdisciplinary, community-based, equitable, and developmentally appropriate.

Finally, completing NLU’s online ECSE program will lead you toward an initial teaching certification in Nebraska.

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#3. The University of Northern Colorado

The University of Northern Colorado (UNC), Denver’s online Master’s degree in Early Childhood Special Education is the next cheapest on our list. This Denver College’s online program is a Master of the Art program in Early Childhood and Early Childhood Special Education (EC/ECSE). It prepares you to be unique in your approach to meeting the educational needs of special needs children from birth to age 8.

Meanwhile, like the other Colleges we discussed, the University of Northern Colorado’s program takes a maximum of 36 semesters (33-36) credits or two years to complete. Also, you can take UNC’s Masters in EC/ECE online and at the Denver Center at Lowry.

Furthermore, after the EC/ECE program, you will earn either a Master’s degree or an Early Childhood Special Education Endorsement.

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You should encourage parents bringing up special needs children to take this Georgia Special Needs Scholarship for their child with special disabilities in High School.

#4. The University of Colorado – Denver

Like UNC, the University of Colorado – Denver (CU Denver) also offers a Master of Arts in Early Childhood Education (ECE). The ECE program also includes an Early Childhood Special Education licensure or endorsement. While this program is one of the most affordable online ECE programs out there, it takes longer to complete. The total credit hours for CU Denver’s online ECE are between 30 and 42.

Furthermore, CU Denver prides its online ECE program as one of the best. It also teaches administration and leadership, diversity and inclusion, pedagogy, teaching and learning, and leadership possibilities within this field. Also, the program is a 100% online program with scholarships of up to 100k available for students specializing in Early Childhood Education.

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#5. University of Missouri (Mizzou Online)

The University of Missouri (MU) is another college in the USA that offers an online Master’s degree in Early Childhood Special Education that is qualitative and affordable. Mizzou Online’s ECSE Master’s program is an M Ed program you can take 100% online.

Like CU Denver, the University of Missouri also provides funding opportunities for your online Master’s program. The Behavior, Language, and Literacy (BeLL)–Online grant is available for you for this program. However, MU’s online ECSE Master’s program is 30 credit hours.

Meanwhile, MU’s online ECSE master’s degree prepares you to work with young children with disabilities, those at risk for school failure, and their families. It potentially benefits Child-Care Center Workers, Early Childhood Practitioners, Head Start Teachers, School Counselors, etc.

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#6. Indiana University Online

Indiana University (IU) Online offers another of the cheapest 100% online Masters in Early Childhood Special Education. However, IU online’s master’s program is a Master of Science in Education (MSEd). The program prepares you for the challenges of special education in the diverse and changing landscapes of today’s classroom in just 36 credit hours.

Meanwhile, IU Online’s Special Education Master’s is based on special education professional standards established by the Council for Exceptional Children and the State of Indiana. This is why after completing the program, you can take on careers as an Early childhood special educator, Emotional Disabilities Teacher, Hearing-Impaired Itinerant Teacher, etc.

To this effect, you will take courses based on your area of interest, such as autism, behavior specialists, early childhood, instructional strategies, or intense interventions.

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If you’re a Canadian Student reading this article and you’re interested in children with Autism, study about Autism and help these students develop through the Autism Scholars Awards for Canadian Students

#7. West Chester University

West Chester University (WCU) is another college in the USA that offers an affordable online master’s degree in Special Education. Through its Special Education Department, West Chester has offered one of the most recognized Master’s in Education in Special Education. WCU’s M.Ed. in Special Education focuses on Universal Design for Learning and Assistive Technologies, Specialization in Autism Spectrum Disorders, or optional dual enrollment for Special Education Certification.

Although the program is more general than specific, the program will also prepare you to better serve children with special disabilities. This is so because WCU’s interdisciplinary program includes Special Education, Secondary and Professional Education, and Communicative Disorders.

Meanwhile, WCU’s M.Ed in Special Education online curriculum is 33 credit hours which you will complete in two years.

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Early Childhood Special Educators in the USA can use the Black Wynn Autism Scholarship for US Students to specialize in Autism.

#8. Northern Arizona University

Northern Arizona University (NAU) is another college in the USA that offers an online master’s program in Special Education. NAU’s master’s degree in Special Education is a Master of Education (M.Ed.) program you can take online or at NAU’s Flagstaff campus.

The program allows you to emphasize Positive Behavior Support, Cross-Categorical/High Incidence, Disability Studies, or Early Childhood. Hence, you will teach children with special needs if you emphasize Early Childhood.

However, NAU ‘s online M.Ed in Special Education is a non-certified program. It prepares you to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities in human serving agencies in 30 credit hours. However, the program may not lead to licensure.

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#9. Ohio University

Ohio University is another place in the USA where you can get an online ECSE Master’s Degree that is pocket-friendly and will suit your needs. Ohio’s Online Master’s Program is a blended Master’s in Education (ME) in Early Childhood and Special Education. It may not be as cheap as NSU’s program, but does it blend ECE with ECSE with the price Ohio offers? It is affordable.

Meanwhile, Ohio’s blended online master’s degree program utilizes the most current adult learning principles to increase the quantity and quality of early childhood teachers and intervention specialists. Doing this improves the services and outcomes for children ages birth to 10 and their families.

Also, Ohio’s blended online ECE and ECSE Master’s Degree has a coursework requirement ranging from 31 to 34 credit hours. The delivery of the program is entirely online, and students gain licensure in the end.

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Meanwhile, if you like to study abroad as an ECSE teacher, these 21 Scholarships for Teachers and Tutors to Study Abroad will help you.

#10. Capella University

Capella University’s Master of Science in Education in Early Childhood Education Studies Specialization is among the most popular ECSE degrees. The program helps you grow your knowledge of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP), focusing on play-based learning that respects each child’s uniqueness.

Also, Capella’s MS in Education, Early Childhood Education Studies helps you develop the skills and knowledge to design, implement, and evaluate developmentally appropriate learning experiences for young children.

Meanwhile, Capella’s online M. Ed. in Early Childhood Special Education has a total course requirement of 46 quarter credits which you will complete 100% online.

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At the end of your career as an Early Childhood Special Education Teacher, you should consider any 25 Less Stressful Jobs for Retired Teachers.

What Skills Should Early Childhood Special Educators Have?

Not everyone can become an Early Childhood Special Education teacher. It takes a lot to deal with children with special needs; you will be frustrated if you don’t have what it takes.

Therefore, while you are intrinsically driven to assist in the development of children with special disabilities, you must work out to be:

• Patient
• Kind
• Compassionate
• Well organized
• Flexible
• Creative.

Also, you will spend most of your time working one-on-one with students in specially designed classrooms. This will require you to be emotionally attached to the children you’re teaching. Are you willing to be emotionally attached to special needs children in your life?

Furthermore, communication skill is essential for ECSE teachers. You will need it to communicate effectively with special needs students, other faculty members, parents, and social workers.

Lastly, you must have empathy, as teaching special needs students requires a deep understanding of each student’s needs and learning styles.

FAQs

Conclusion

A master’s degree in Early Childhood Special Education is, in most cases, a requirement. You would need it to be able to teach students with special needs in most states in the USA. Many employers will also require this of you. Therefore, to speed up acquiring an ECSE master’s degree, you can easily enroll in an online program. It offers you the flexibility of Study and a cheap alternative to quality education. However, you must ensure that your cheap online master’s program in ECSE has relevant accreditation and meets your education needs.

References

• Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education – Early Childhood Special Education
• Learn How to Become – HOW TO BECOME A SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHER: SPECIAL EDUCATION DEGREES & CAREERS
• Concordia University-Portland – Early Childhood Special Education Teacher: Job Duties, Pay Information
• Bureau of Labor Statistics – Occupational Outlook Handbook: Preschool Teachers
• Bureau of Labor Statistics – Occupational Employment Statistics: 25-2051 Special Education Teachers, Preschool
• Glassdoor – Early Childhood Special Education Teacher Salaries
• Early Childhood Education Zone – What Careers Can I have with an Early Childhood Education Degree?

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