School Teacher (K–12)
SOC 25-2021
School teachers plan and deliver the curriculum, assess what has been learned, manage a classroom and account for every child's progress. ⚠ This page covers elementary, middle, secondary and special education together, because in Florida they share one certification system and differ mainly by which subject examination you sit. ⚠⚠⚠ And it leads with the finding a Florida student most needs: the state ranks around 19th nationally for STARTING pay and 50th for AVERAGE pay. The salary that recruits you is competitive; the one you reach after fifteen years is not.
School Counselor
SOC 21-1012
⚠⚠⚠ A Florida school counsellor carries 432 students. ASCA recommends 250 and the national average is 376 — so Florida runs 56 above the country and 182 above the standard. ⚠⚠ The credential is a Department of EDUCATION certification, not a Department of Health licence, which is the distinction that separates this from mental health counselling even though both mostly come out of the same master's code. ⚠ $64,330 median, 31,000 openings a year.
Instructional Designer
SOC 25-9031
⚠⚠⚠ One job title, two federal occupations pulling in opposite directions. Instructional coordinator: $77,440, 60% master's, growing 1–2%. Training and development specialist: $69,280, 78% bachelor's, twice the jobs, twice the openings, growing much faster than average. ⚠⚠ And you cannot major in it — Florida's public institutions awarded 978 credentials in this field and SIX were bachelor's degrees.
Speech-Language Pathologist
SOC 29-1127
Speech-language pathologists diagnose and treat disorders of speech, language, voice and swallowing — in children who are not talking, in stroke patients who have lost words, in people who cannot safely swallow. ⚠ A median of $97,870 and 17% growth, among the best combinations on this site. ⚠⚠⚠ But the bachelor's is NOT a terminal degree: Florida awards 513 of them a year into 298 master's places, and 89% of the profession holds a master's. This page covers the assistant, the pathologist and the audiologist, because the bachelor's only reaches the first.
Special education and teaching — 19 Florida public institutions. A genuine adjacent destination: a large share of speech-language pathologists work in schools, and exceptional student education is where the same interest goes when the master's route does not open.