a bachelor's degree in special education is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #55 out of 363 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 23 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Special Education Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 597 bachelor's degrees in special education during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Special Education School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of special education for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's 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 - How many other special education students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
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 easy is it for special education to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized special education related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for special education students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Special Education Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
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It is difficult to beat University of Minnesota - Twin Cities if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in special education. Located in the city of Minneapolis, UMN Twin Cities is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the special education degree program at University of Minnesota - Twin Cities make $7,452 more than the average graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Winona State University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in special education. Winona State is a moderately-sized public university located in the town of Winona.
Bachelor's recipients from the special education degree program at Winona State University make $4,378 above the standard college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Minnesota State University - Mankato is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in special education. Located in the small city of Mankato, Minnesota State Mankato is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those special education students who get their bachelor's degree from Minnesota State University - Mankato receive $4,813 more than the standard special ed grad.
University of Nebraska - Lincoln is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in special education. UNL is a very large public university located in the large city of Lincoln.
Bachelor's recipients from the special education major at University of Nebraska - Lincoln earn $4,698 more than the standard college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
St. Cloud State University is a fairly large public university located in the city of Saint Cloud.
Those special education students who get their bachelor's degree from Saint Cloud State University receive $4,343 more than the standard special ed student.
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).
Your choice of special education for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
