Introduction Special education is an important portion of an education process in any learning setting. Special education focuses on children or any other learner with some disability that requires a unique attention in the form of education dissemination. Students with disabilities are also eligible of attaining high grades in their fields of study. This calls for special attention from the teachers that guide these students throughout their education life. A special education student can be better placed to achieve academically if well guided by his/her teacher through a specially designed program. Lack of such guidance translates to low performance of students who would score highly in their course work. In the event of establishing this knowledge claim, motivation will be treated to cover not only teachers but also the students wit special needs in education. However, the focus shift will incline towards the teacher as a central character in the study. Besides, motivation will also be handled investigate possible courses of the lack of it, ways to motivate the teachers of special education. Although, the study focuses on motivation as a central word in the study, another goal is to establish possible impacts of motivation to the students. Consequently, interest was developed to conduct a study to probe into the knowledge claim that there might be a relationship between special education teachers’ motivation and performance of children with special needs. In addition, it is suspected that there may be a relationship between motivation of a special education teacher and a similar motivation of his/her student. Therefore, there is a need to establish this relationship between motivation of special education teachers and the performance of students with special education needs. Literature review There is substantial literature in support of the motivation and its impacts to students in with special needs. Study has shown that people who are highly motivated in their careers are usually inclined to some goals throughout their jobs (Johnson, 2008, p. 234). This is an assertion that holds ground with regard to motivation of teachers of special education. Besides, motivation of special education teachers has some impacts on the student with special education needs. Conrad and Serlin (2006, p. 15) established a relationship of student performance based teacher expectations. They asserted that a student who knows the expectation the teacher performs highest. The resulting link in this case ties motivation to a two dimensional outlook. In one dimension, a student in special education program attaches performance to teacher’s expectations. On the other hand, a teacher’s motivation dictates the performance to self-motivation. Studies have shown that availability of incentives catalyzes performance of students. Thomas (2005, p.176) postulated through his studies that a relationship occurs between teacher motivation and performance of students. He suggested the importance of incentives as a way of motivating teachers. Other studies have shown that it is not only motivation of a teacher that shapes the achievement and outcome of students, but also teacher enthusiasm (Fowler, 1997, p.201). Additionally, motivation for b