The article is devoted to one of the most important components of interpersonal communication between teachers and students - empathy. The article discusses the features of the pedagogical empathy of teachers of correctional schools teaching children with mental retardation and teachers of secondary schools. The research is based on the definition of empathy given by I.M. Yusupov, who, considering empathy in the framework of the ways of understanding (rational, emotional and behavioral) and emphasizes that empathy occupies a key place in a person’s understanding of objects of social nature; in the acquisition of communicative competence by a person in the effective interaction of a teacher and a student [1]. The purpose of the study: to identify the level of empathy, the structure of empathy among teachers of correctional schools. The study involved 107 teachers. 57 of them are teachers of correctional schools, 50 are teachers of secondary schools. The age range of the study participants ranged from 36 to 45 years. Teaching experience - from 8-11 years. Research methods: diagnostics of the level of empathic abilities according to V.V. Boyko, “Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale - BEES” by A. Mehrabyan as modified by N. Epstein, “Determination of personality orientation” by B. Bass. To identify the statistical significance of the differences, the Student’s t-test was used. The interdependencies between psychodiagnostic indicators were studied by the method of correlation analysis using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. The results of the study showed that teachers of correctional institutions are distinguished by significantly higher indicators, compared with teachers of general education schools, of rational, emotional and intuitive channels of empathy, less representation of emotional barriers in communication, greater focus on emotional communication and a variety of forms of empathic response.