I'm not an expert on what you are asking re: special education, but one resource you may want to look at is:
CERRA || Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, & Advancement || Home (http://www.cerra.org/home.html - broken link)
From their website, they "provide leadership in identifying, attracting, placing and retaining well-qualified individuals for the teaching profession in our state." It is associated with Winthrop University in Rock Hill, which is very involved with and highly regarded in teacher education here in SC.
It looks like they do a teacher expo every year (I am assuming job fair?) and it says that special education is a "critical needs" area in SC. (I have heard this before - that special education, foreign language, sciences, etc. are deemed critical needs in SC - and I'm not sure but there may be some sort of program through the state Dept. of Education to attract teachers to teach in these areas in certain districts.)
South Carolina Department of Education
As for your ideal location for meeting others and building your life: start with the main metros of Greenville, Columbia, and Charleston and their suburbs which are most likely to have the most young professionals/shopping and dining/other transplants/best school districts. There is also the Fort Mill area which is a fast-growing suburb of Charlotte, NC as well as Myrtle Beach which would put you at the ocean but in a more touristy area.
Hope this helps. Good luck!