Ranked #8 in popularity, special education is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in Washington to determine which ones were the best for special education students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 81 master's degrees in special education during the 2022-2023 academic year.
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on special education students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other special education students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for special education to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
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 colleges for special education students working on their master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Special Education Master's Degree Schools in Washington ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Special Education in Washington
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in special education.
Top Washington Schools for a Master's in Special Ed
University of Washington - Seattle Campus is a wonderful choice for students interested in a master's degree in special education. UW Seattle is a very large public university located in the city of Seattle.
Those special education students who get their master's degree from University of Washington - Seattle Campus earn $4,998 more than the typical special ed graduate.
Whitworth University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in special education. Located in the large suburb of Spokane, Whitworth is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Master's students who receive their degree from the special ed program make an average of $63,554 for their early career.
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).
