Special Education is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #8 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 4 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Special Education Master's Degree Schools in Connecticut ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 339 master's degrees in special education to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Special Education School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of special education for getting your master'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 for a Master's Degree 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 master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master'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 - The number of special education students who choose to seek a master's 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 master's 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 master's degree.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Special Education Master's Degree Schools in Connecticut list to help you make the college decision.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Special Education in Connecticut
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in special education.
Top Connecticut Schools for a Master's in Special Ed
Southern Connecticut State University is a good option for individuals interested in a master's degree in special education. SCSU is a medium-sized public university located in the midsize city of New Haven.
After graduating, special ed master's recipients usually make around $58,018 in the first five years of their career.
University of Hartford is a great choice for students interested in a master's degree in special education. UHart is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the midsize city of West Hartford.
Those special education students who get their master's degree from University of Hartford earn $2,339 more than the standard special ed student.
It is difficult to beat Central Connecticut State University if you want to pursue a master's degree in special education. Located in the large suburb of New Britain, CCSU is a public university with a moderately-sized student population.
Those special education students who get their master's degree from Central Connecticut State University earn $2,218 more than the average 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).