Online tutoring jobs for retired special education teachers

You spent decades earning that license. Keep using it on your terms.

Online tutoring for retired special education teachers — 5 to 10 hours a week from your living room, $23–$25 an hour as a W-2 employee, paid every Friday. No driving. No IEPs. No staff meetings. Just kids who still need what you spent your career learning how to do.

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Founded 2014 44 special education tutors thousands of children served Built by parents of a child with autism

Why retired teachers are our favorite hires.

Half the special education teachers on our team are retired. There's a reason. The teachers who built careers in this work — who learned how to read a kid in the first thirty seconds, who know what to do when the IEP doesn't match the child in front of you, who've taught reading to dozens of dyslexic eight-year-olds — those teachers don't lose that knowledge when they retire. They just lose the place to use it.

We give it back to them.

What retired teachers earn with us, in real numbers.

Let's be specific, because retirees deserve real math.

$24/hr × 8 hours/week × 52 weeks = $9,984/year of supplemental income.

$24/hr × 10 hours/week × 52 weeks = $12,480/year.

That's between $200 and $400 every week, depending on how much you want to work. In Tennessee or Florida — both no-state-income-tax states — a meaningful share of that lands in your bank account. After federal tax and FICA, expect roughly $7,500 to $10,000 of net annual income from this role.

That's a vacation. A new roof. A grandchild's college fund. A pickleball membership. It is not life-changing money. It is meaningful money for a few hours a week of work you already know how to do.

Will tutoring affect my pension?

This is the question every retired teacher asks first, and it deserves a real answer. The short version: usually no, but it depends on your state and your retirement plan.

We are not a public school district. Most state pension systems have rules about "return to teaching" that apply specifically to retired teachers going back to work for a public school. We're a private tutoring company. The rules that apply when you go back to your old district usually do not apply when you tutor for us.

That said, this is your retirement. Don't take our word for it. We strongly recommend you check with your state retirement system and a financial advisor before signing on.

Tennessee retirees (TCRS)

TCRS rules around "return to service" generally apply to TCRS-covered employment, which means working for a Tennessee public school district. Working for a private tutoring company is treated differently. Most of our retired Tennessee tutors have had no pension impact. Confirm with TCRS directly: 800-922-7772.

Florida retirees (FRS)

FRS rules differ depending on whether you participated in DROP, took a lump sum, or are receiving monthly benefits. Generally, working for a non-FRS-covered employer (like us) does not affect your FRS pension or DROP. Confirm with FRS: 844-377-1888.

Read our full pension and tutoring guide →

"Will I have to learn complicated technology?"

No. If you can use Zoom, you can do this job.

Our tutoring platform is browser-based. You log in with an email and password. You see your scheduled sessions. You click "join." The student appears on your screen. You teach. When the session ends, you click a button to log notes — three or four sentences about what you covered. That's it.

During onboarding, our team walks you through every screen. We do a practice session with you before you ever meet a real student. If something breaks mid-lesson, you call our team and a human picks up. No teacher has ever quit because the technology was too hard.

A typical week, for a retired tutor.

Linda is one of our retired teachers. She taught sped in Memphis for 31 years. Here's her week:

  • Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. — 45-minute session with Maya, age 9, working on multiplication fluency.
  • Tuesday at 5:50 p.m. — logs five sentences of session notes, closes her laptop.
  • Thursday at 5:00 p.m. — same routine, different student. Tomas, age 7, decoding.
  • Saturday at 10 a.m. — third student, Aisha, age 11, reading comprehension.

That's her whole week with us. Three sessions, three hours of teaching, fifteen minutes of notes. About $75 a week, or roughly $300 a month. She does it because she misses the kids. The money pays for her grandkids' birthday gifts.

Frequently asked questions from retired teachers

Do I need a current teaching license?
Your license must be currently active or have been active within the past five years, in any U.S. state. If you retired three years ago and let your license lapse, that still counts. If you retired ten years ago, contact us anyway — there are sometimes exceptions for veteran teachers with deep experience.
How is this different from substitute teaching?
You're not in a building. You're not babysitting a class. You're not following someone else's lesson plan that doesn't fit. You're working one-on-one with a child who has been matched to your specific strengths, on skills you actually know how to teach. It's the part of teaching you got into the profession to do.
Can I work part of the year and not the rest?
Yes. Snowbirds, summer travelers, grandparents helping with new babies — we work around all of it. Tell us when you're available, take time off when you're not. We just ask for two weeks' notice on extended breaks so we can let your students' families know.
What if I'm a Florida snowbird who lives somewhere else half the year?
As long as you're a W-2 employee paying Florida state taxes (zero, since FL has none), you can work from anywhere with a stable internet connection. Some of our Florida tutors work from a lake house in North Carolina half the year and we don't even know.
How long does it take to start?
Two to three weeks from your application. Background check takes about a week, license verification another week, then a brief platform orientation and you're matched with your first student. Most teachers are teaching their first session within 17 to 21 days of applying.
What if I haven't taught in five years?
Apply anyway. We've hired teachers who took a decade off to raise grandchildren. The license rule is a starting point, not a wall. If you have the experience, we want to talk.

Ready to teach again — but only the part you actually loved?

Five minutes in our chatbot tells us if this is a fit. If it is, we'll be on the phone with you within two business days.

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