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Plainfield, New Jersey has 5 accredited schools offering special education programs. Plainfield has a population of about 54,515. Median household income is $80,334 (Census ACS 2023, 5-year). About 22.8% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metro area, the top-earning special education-related role is Special Education Teacher, Secondary School at a median $100,430 annually (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer special education programs near Plainfield, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from Plainfield city center. The list is rebuilt from federal IPEDS data on every site update.
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS). To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked against schools at the same credential level:
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score. On this page, schools are ordered by distance from Plainfield. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source: IPEDS / College Scorecard (2023 cohort). Browse all New Jersey schools on the New Jersey special education page.
Plainfield is part of the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metro area (BLS area code 35620). Where MSA-level wages are published, the table below shows MSA medians; otherwise it falls back to New Jersey statewide.
| Occupation | Median Wage | Source | COL-Adjusted (US=100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Special Education Teacher, Kindergarten and Elementary School | $91,610 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $81,359 |
| Special Education Teacher, Middle School | $94,740 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $84,139 |
| Special Education Teacher, Secondary School | $100,430 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $89,192 |
| Special Education Teacher, Preschool | $81,210 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $72,123 |
Source: BLS, May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wage data at the metro (MSA) and state level – not by individual city.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 54,515 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B01003) |
| Median household income | $80,334 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B19013) |
| Adults 25+ with bachelor’s+ | 22.8% | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B15003) |
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 112.6 (above U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
Our directory has 5 accredited schools offering special education programs near Plainfield. The closest is Rutgers University-New Brunswick in New Brunswick, NJ (8.2 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is College of Staten Island CUNY (14.2 miles). 5 of the highlighted schools are flagged as offering distance education.
Based on BLS OEWS May 2025 wage data, the top-paying special education-related roles near Plainfield are: Special Education Teacher, Secondary School ($100,430), Special Education Teacher, Middle School ($94,740), Special Education Teacher, Kindergarten and Elementary School ($91,610). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with New Jersey statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
North Plainfield, NJ is 1.2 miles from Plainfield and has its own set of local special education programs – see the city’s page. For online programs, distance matters less; for hybrid or in-person formats, comparing both can help.
Plainfield’s median household income of $80,334 (Census ACS 2023) is one input. Online programs let students stay in Plainfield while attending lower-cost out-of-state schools, and New Jersey public universities often offer reduced in-state online tuition.
Confirm institutional accreditation via the U.S. Department of Education database (U.S. Dept. of Education database), and check for any program-specific accreditation listed by the school.
Compare every accredited online degree program with city-level data for Plainfield:
Data verified: July 30, 2026. Salary, employment, and tuition figures on this page are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025; Employment Projections 2024–2034) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2023 cohort). The source agency and data year are cited inline with every statistic.
Back to Best Online Special Education Programs in New Jersey (2026)
