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Best Value Special Education Schools in California

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2023 Best Value Special Education Schools in California

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

34 Colleges
$23,462 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$59,751 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Special Education School for You

Special Education is the #16 most popular major in California with 1,632 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.

There are so many programs in today's world that it can tough to figure out which one is the right one for you. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house. Also there are many trade schools that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.

Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Grad Degree Search has created the Best Value Special Education Schools in California to help you in your search for the best school for you. Our analysis looked at 34 schools in California to see which programs offered the best value experiences for special ed students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

This ranking is not just a list of inexpensive schools. We also consider each school's quality, since we believe a low-quality school may not be a 'bargain' at any price. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.

For nationwide and regional rankings, we use out-of-state tuition and fees in our calculations. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.

2023 Best Value Special Education Schools in California

Check out the special ed programs at these schools if you want to get the best value for your educational dollar.

Top 10 Best Special Education Schools

$6,785 Average Tuition & Fees

Our analysis found California State University - Los Angeles to be the best value school for special education students who want to pursue a degree in California. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, Cal State LA is a public college with a fairly large student population.

Cal State LA undergraduate students pay an average of $6,785 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Full Special Education at California State University - Los Angeles Report

$6,846 Average Tuition & Fees

The excellent programs at California State University - Long Beach helped the school earn the #2 place on this year’s ranking of the best special education schools in California. CSULB is a very large public school located in the city of Long Beach.

CSULB undergraduate students pay an average of $6,846 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read More…

$38,740 Average Tuition & Fees

The excellent programs at Concordia University, Irvine helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best special education schools in California. Concordia University, Irvine is a small private not-for-profit school located in the city of Irvine.

Concordia University, Irvine undergraduate students pay an average of $38,740 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Concordia University, Irvine also claimed a spot on our Best Special Education Schools in California list. It’s in the top 15% of all schools in this category.

Full Special Education at Concordia University, Irvine Report

$7,727 Average Tuition & Fees

The excellent programs at California State University - San Marcos helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best special education schools in California. Located in the large suburb of San Marcos, CSUSM is a public school with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at CSUSM are $7,727 a year.

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$7,213 Average Tuition & Fees

Out of the 34 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, California State University - San Bernardino landed the # 5 spot on the list. Located in the midsize city of San Bernardino, CSUSB is a public college with a large student population.

CSUSB undergraduate students pay an average of $7,213 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Special Education at California State University - San Bernardino

$6,653 Average Tuition & Fees

California State University - Fresno came in at #6 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Special Education Schools in California ranking. Located in the city of Fresno, Fresno State is a public college with a very large student population.

Fresno State undergraduate students pay an average of $6,653 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Special Education at California State University - Fresno

$6,995 Average Tuition & Fees

California State University - East Bay came in at #7 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Special Education Schools in California ranking. Located in the suburb of Hayward, Cal State East Bay is a public college with a large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at Cal State East Bay are $6,995 a year.

Read full report on Special Education at California State University - East Bay

$7,043 Average Tuition & Fees

California State University - Northridge came in at #8 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Special Education Schools in California ranking. Located in the large city of Northridge, CSUN is a public school with a very large student population.

CSUN undergraduate students pay an average of $7,043 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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$7,060 Average Tuition & Fees

California State University - Dominguez Hills landed the #9 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value special education programs. CSUDH is a fairly large public school located in the city of Carson.

CSUDH undergraduate students pay an average of $7,060 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Special Education at California State University - Dominguez Hills

$39,500 Average Tuition & Fees

With a ranking of #10, Point Loma Nazarene University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for special education students. PLNU is a small private not-for-profit school located in the large city of San Diego.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at PLNU are $39,500 a year.

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Best Value Special Education Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Value Special Education Colleges in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 90
Oregon 180
Nevada 147
Hawaii 28
Alaska 46

One of 14 majors within the area of study, special education has other similar majors worth exploring.

Related Major Annual Graduates
Educational Administration 45,458
Teacher Education Grade Specific 34,451
General Education 21,189
Teacher Education Subject Specific 20,616
Curriculum & Instruction 19,784

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 25 schools only.

  • 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).
  • Credit for the banner image above goes to woodleywonderworks.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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