Child, Family, and School Social Workers build social perceptiveness, service orientation and judgment and decision making skills that carry over to other work. Below are 25 careers ranked by how closely their skills match, with pay from BLS May 2025. The closest match is Recreational Therapists (85%).
Updated October 2026 · Data: O*NET 31.0 and BLS OEWS May 2025 · How we match careers
Sorted by skill match.
| # | Career | Skill match | Median pay | Pay change | Extra education |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Recreational Therapists | 85% | $61,960 | +4% | None |
| 2 | Social and Community Service Managers | 83% | $80,390 | +35% | None |
| 3 | Special Education Teachers, Secondary School | 81% | $74,260 | +25% | None |
| 4 | Special Education Teachers, Preschool | 80% | $64,830 | +9% | None |
| 5 | Patient Representatives | 79% | $50,290Pay for the broader BLS group “Health Technologists and Technicians, All Other” | Not compared | None |
| 6 | Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education | 79% | $63,970 | +7% | None |
| 7 | Special Education Teachers, Middle School | 79% | $66,810 | +12% | None |
| 8 | Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors | 78% | $61,540 | +3% | None |
| 9 | Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education | 78% | $62,680 | +5% | None |
| 10 | Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education | 78% | $72,040 | +21% | None |
Compared with Child, Family, and School Social Workers, median $59,550. Skill match is our estimate (0–99) from O*NET 31.0 skills, knowledge, work activities and interests, adjusted for preparation and big pay drops. Pay: BLS OEWS May 2025, national median.
How important each skill is in work as child, family, and school social workers (O*NET importance, scale 1–5).
The gaps that show up most often across your top 10 matches.
Free and low-cost training: use the CareerOneStop training finder below.
A concrete first step, the skills to add, and the hard parts of each job, from O*NET 31.0 education, training and work context data.
85% skill match · $61,960 · +4% pay
Instructing · Management of Material Resources · Management of Financial Resources
83% skill match · $80,390 · +35% pay
Management of Financial Resources · Management of Material Resources · Management of Personnel Resources
81% skill match · $74,260 · +25% pay
Instructing · Management of Material Resources · Management of Financial Resources
If you want to stay close to what you do now, these roles are the nearest.
The closest matches are Recreational Therapists (85% skill match, median $61,960), Social and Community Service Managers (83% skill match, median $80,390) and Special Education Teachers, Secondary School (81% skill match, median $74,260), based on O*NET 31.0 data and BLS May 2025 pay.
Among the 25 matches, 16 pay more than child, family, and school social workers at the median. The biggest increases: Speech-Language Pathologists (+64%, $97,870), Social and Community Service Managers (+35%, $80,390) and Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary (+30%, $77,570).
22 of the 25 matches usually need no more education than you have now, based on O*NET Job Zones. 3 usually need a graduate degree: Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary, Speech-Language Pathologists and Clinical Nurse Specialists.
We compare the importance of skills, knowledge, work activities and interests in O*NET 31.0 for your job and every other career, then adjust for extra preparation and big pay drops. The full method is on our Methodology page.