Special Education is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #77 most popular associate degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Special Education Associate Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 1,233 associate degrees in special education to qualified students.
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Average Early-Career Salaries
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their associate degree from the school. After all, your associate degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to special education students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of special education students who choose to seek a associate degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt special education students go into to obtain their associate degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized special education related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for special education students working on their associate degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Special Education Associate Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Chemeketa Community College is a wonderful choice for individuals interested in an associate degree in special education. Chemeketa Community College is a medium-sized public college located in the large suburb of Salem.
Associate students who receive their degree from the special ed program earn around $32,829 in their early career salary.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
by our College Data Analytics Team
