Special education tutors help students with mild to severe cognitive, emotional, or physical disabilities. Special needs tutors modify the general education curriculum to meet the child's individual needs and involve themselves in each student's social and behavioral development.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) identifies 13 disability categories where special education should be provided.

• Auditory Impairment (AI) – refers to a hearing loss not categorized by deafness.
• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) – mainly affects a child's social and communication skills and behavior.
• Deafness – covers kids who can't hear most or all sounds, even with a hearing aid.
• Deaf-Blindness (DB) – covers kids with both severe hearing and vision loss that requires unique programs.
• Emotional Disturbance (ED) – various mental health issues such as anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and depression.
• Intellectual Disability (ID) – covers disabilities such as below-average intellectual abilities, poor communication or social skills, and poor self care. One example is down syndrome.
• Multiple Impairments (MI) – a child with multiple disabilities in this list.
• Orthopedic Impairment (OI) – covers impairments in kids who lack function or ability in their bodies, such as cerebral palsy.
• Other Health Impairment (OHI) – conditions that limit a child's strength, energy, or alertness such as ADHD.
• Specific learning disability (SLD) – conditions such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, auditory processing disorder, or nonverbal learning disability.
• Speech or Language Impairment (SI) – covers difficulties such as stuttering, pronouncing words, making sounds with the voice, or understanding words.
• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) – injury to the brain caused by a physical force.
• Visual Impairment / Blindness (VI) – covers both partial sight and blindness.