Georgia teacher salary: state base pay, raises, local supplements and special education pay by area

1. Georgia’s state base salary: what GaDOE says

Georgia sets a State Salary Schedule for certified staff in its public school systems. State Board of Education Rule 160-5-2-.05 defines it as the document that “details the minimum state salary for certified personnel” and says it is “approved by the State Board of Education and funded by the Georgia General Assembly.” The copy of the rule on GaDOE’s site was adopted in March 2011; we have not confirmed whether it was amended since.

Where a teacher sits on the schedule depends on two things, in the rule’s terms:

• The certificate. “All other certificate titles issued by the PSC shall be paid according to the T category of the State Salary Schedule.” (PSC is the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, GaPSC.) A separate BT category covers “certificate titles where content requirements have been completed for the field but pedagogy requirements have not been completed”. Georgia’s state staff data (GOSA) label certificate levels 4, 5, 6 and 7 as bachelor’s, master’s, specialist’s and doctoral.
• Years of experience. A salary step is “The column on the State Salary Schedule that corresponds to certified personnel’s creditable years of experience.”

GaDOE’s own figures. In a statement published November 17, 2025 (GaDOE press release), State School Superintendent Richard Woods wrote of “a beginning teacher with a college degree who only makes $43,592 on the teacher salary schedule.” The teacher is one of several examples in which GaDOE says it changed names and some identifying details. The same statement says “teachers stop receiving salary increases based on experience after 21 years in the classroom”.

That statement came out during the 2025-26 school year. We found no line in the FY2027 budget act that raises the schedule (section 2), so, as we read it, the $43,592 figure still applies in 2026-27. When we searched on Oct. 15, 2026, we found no copy of the full state salary schedule on GaDOE’s website; copies appear on some school districts’ websites. This guide therefore prints GaDOE’s own figure and no full table of steps.

2. Recent raises and one-time payments, FY2025 to FY2027

Each state budget year (fiscal year, FY) matches a school year: FY2027 is 2026-27. Here is what four recent budget acts did to the state schedule, as we read them:

FY2025. The FY2025 act’s Quality Basic Education program says: “Increase funds to adjust the state base salary schedule to increase salaries for certified teachers and certified employees by $2,500 effective September 1, 2024.”

Amended FY2026. The version of HB 973 posted by the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget is the conference committee substitute dated February 25, 2026. Its Quality Basic Education program says: “Increase funds to provide a one-time salary supplement of $2,000 for formula earned certified educators and administrative staff.” Its salary section describes the supplement as “a one-time payment of $2,000 in addition to the state base salary” and extends “a $2,000 one-time salary supplement to local school systems for part-time employees, to include QBE-funded instructional staff”. Two state special education programs carry the same one-time line: GNETS, which the act says serves students ages three to twenty-one “with autism or severe emotional behavioral problems and their families”, and Preschool Disabilities Services, each with a “one-time salary supplement of $2,000 for formula earned certified educators”. We have not checked the final signed act or when districts paid the supplement.

FY2027. HB 974 was signed on May 12, 2026 (Governor’s announcement). We read all 12 change lines in its Quality Basic Education program and its salary adjustments section: none raises the state base salary schedule, and the act has no one-time salary supplement line.

Looking back and ahead. GaDOE’s November 2025 statement says: “Georgia teacher salaries have increased by $9,500 since Governor Kemp took office.” It does not list the raises behind that figure. On October 13, 2026, GaDOE announced its 2027 legislative priorities: “Superintendent Woods is renewing his longstanding call to expand teacher salary step increases beyond 21 years of service”, and “GaDOE is calling for an additional $10,000 in raises for teachers and certified staff over five years”. These are proposals to the legislature, not law.

3. Local supplements: a minimum, not a cap

The state schedule is a floor. The rule lets each “LUA”, which it defines as “a local education agency or a regional educational service agency”, pay more: “Each LUA may supplement the minimum salaries of certified personnel.” It also says:

• What a district may weigh: “In determining the amount of local supplement, the LUA may take into consideration the nature of duties to be performed, the responsibility of the position held, the subject matter or grades taught, and experience and performance of the employee whose salary is being supplemented.”
• Cuts in a raise year need hearings: “In any fiscal year in which such personnel receive an increase under the State Salary Schedule, the LUA shall not decrease any local supplement for such personnel below the local supplement received in the immediately preceding fiscal year unless the LUA has conducted at least two public hearings regarding the decrease and followed hearing requirements as specified in O.C.G.A. § 20-2-212.”
• State supplements pass through: “each LUA shall pay state supplements to specified personnel listed on the state schedule of minimum salaries, subject to appropriation by the General Assembly.”

The rule sets no minimum local supplement, so, as we read it, the amount is up to each district (we did not read the statute itself).

Is there extra state pay for special education teachers? We found none just for them in the budget acts or the State Board rule. The FY2026, amended FY2026 and FY2027 budget acts have no salary supplement only for special education teachers: the amended FY2026 act’s one-time $2,000 reaches the GNETS and Preschool Disabilities Services programs at the same amount as other certified educators (section 2). The rule’s only subject-based state pay provisions are for math and science teachers (our reading). A district may weigh “the subject matter or grades taught” when it sets a local supplement; we have not checked which districts pay one for special education.

4. Special education teacher pay by area (BLS, May 2025)

BLS estimates pay by occupation for each metro area and for four nonmetropolitan areas, the parts of Georgia outside its metro areas (North, Middle, East and South Georgia). The table shows Savannah, Macon, Augusta, Columbus, Valdosta, Dalton and the four nonmetropolitan areas, with metro Atlanta for context.

How we calculated it. For each area, we took BLS’s published mean annual wages for special education teachers in kindergarten and elementary school (25-2052), middle school (25-2057) and secondary school (25-2058) and weighted each by its published job count. Where BLS did not publish a job count for one of the three in an area, we left it out. These are BLS’s May 2025 estimates (area workbook); BLS publishes these occupations as annual wages only.

The method changes the order. BLS also publishes a fourth occupation, Special Education Teachers, All Other (25-2059), in some areas. Adding it where BLS gives both its jobs and its mean raises Savannah to $61,399, North Georgia nonmetropolitan area to $60,844, South Georgia nonmetropolitan area to $61,259 and Valdosta to $68,335; metro Atlanta’s figure rises too (our arithmetic). Macon-Bibb County’s figure, $60,678, then becomes the smallest in the table.

Read these with care. They are survey estimates, and small areas rest on few jobs (Dalton’s average covers 90 jobs). They are not adjusted for the cost of living. The Augusta and Columbus areas include workers in South Carolina and Alabama. We have not checked which counties BLS puts in each nonmetropolitan area. BLS publishes no special education teacher rows for the Albany or Rome metro areas; the Albany district’s average teacher salary is in section 5. For Georgia as a whole, see section 6.

5. Average teacher salary by school district (GOSA, 2024-25)

The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) publishes each school district’s average annual salary for PK-12 teachers, from data the districts report to the state. These averages cover all teachers, not only special education teachers. The latest file is for 2024-25.

Statewide, GOSA’s 2024-25 average for PK-12 teachers is $71,558. Across the 180 regular school districts, the middle (median) district average is $64,726 (our calculation, leaving out state charter schools).

A district’s average reflects how experienced its teachers are and which certificates they hold, not only its pay scale. We have not seen GOSA’s description of exactly which pay the average includes.

District averages and BLS area figures measure different things. BLS’s area figures (section 4) are survey estimates for special education teachers across an area; GOSA’s are averages for all PK-12 teachers in one district. For example, under our method Savannah’s BLS figure ($59,769) is the smallest in the area table, while Savannah-Chatham County’s GOSA average ($70,155) is above the median district.

6. Special education teacher pay statewide (BLS, May 2025)

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates pay by occupation in its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). Its May 2025 estimates for Georgia’s special education teachers:

BLS counts 9,370 jobs in kindergarten and elementary school, 3,740 in middle school and 4,090 in secondary school special education: 17,200 in the three K-12 special-education teacher occupations. Their job-weighted average wage is $72,264 (our calculation). The median annual wage for kindergarten and elementary school special education teachers is $72,880. BLS also counts 380 preschool and 980 “all other” special education teacher jobs, 18,560 in all five occupations.

BLS publishes only annual wages for these teacher occupations. These estimates are separate from GOSA’s averages in section 5, which cover all PK-12 teachers, not only special education teachers.