Connecticut School Counselor
School counselors in Connecticut earn a median of $73,910 a year (May 2025), above the national median of $64,330. The state projects about 300 openings a year from 2024 to 2034. Public school counselors need a master’s degree and School Counselor (068) certification from the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE), with requirements that depend on your pathway.
Connecticut Links
Connecticut school counselors support students from kindergarten through graduation, academically, socially, and emotionally. It’s demanding work in a state with high expectations and one of the country’s more clearly defined school counseling frameworks.
What School Counselors Do in Connecticut
Consider this hypothetical example: Marcus, a junior at a Hartford high school, has been quietly skipping his morning classes. His grades are slipping, he’s stopped participating, and nobody knows exactly why. His school counselor schedules a check-in and learns that Marcus took a part-time job to help his family cover expenses. She doesn’t just note it in a file. She adjusts his schedule, works with his teachers on what he’s missed, and flags him for college application support before the fall deadline passes. That’s what the job looks like in practice.
According to CSDE, Connecticut school counselors deliver a data-driven core curriculum, group work based on need, individual student planning and course articulation, responsive counseling services, referrals and resources, crisis management, and family engagement.
The state’s programs run on the Connecticut Comprehensive School Counseling Framework (CCSCF), a K-12 framework built on the ASCA National Model’s four components: foundation, delivery, management and accountability. It organizes counseling around three domains: academic, career, and social-emotional development. The framework is built to be preventive and data-informed. In practice, counselors track student outcomes and adjust their programs, rather than just responding to crises as they arise.
At the elementary level, counselors focus on early skill-building: getting along with others, managing emotions, and forming good academic habits. In middle school, they help students through pressures that often peak between sixth and eighth grade. In high school, the work shifts to college and career planning, credit recovery, and helping students finish strong.
Job Outlook in Connecticut
Connecticut projects about 300 openings a year for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors from 2024 to 2034. New positions account for only about 17 of those a year. The rest open as counselors retire, change roles, or leave the field, which is why openings remain steady even when growth is modest.
Employment in the occupation is projected to rise 4.8% over that decade, slightly above the 3.5% projected nationally for the same occupation over the same period. BLS counted 3,370 people working in the occupation in Connecticut in May 2025.
If you’re watching Connecticut public school job postings, you’ll notice they ask for the same credential: the School Counselor (068) endorsement, issued by CSDE. Connecticut accepts more than one pathway, and which one applies depends on your education, preparation program, credentials, and experience. The certification page linked above covers each one.
School Counselor Salary in Connecticut
Connecticut school counselors earn a median of $73,910 a year, about $9,600 above the $64,330 national median (both May 2025). These BLS figures cover educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, including college and career advisors and K-12 school counselors.
Pay varies by employer, location, education, and experience. Public school districts commonly use salary schedules based on education and years of service.
| Percentile | Annual Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| 10th | $46,510 |
| 25th | $56,820 |
| Median (50th) | $73,910 |
| 75th | $95,940 |
| 90th | $108,540 |
Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury leads the state’s metro areas at $76,680. Hartford, New Haven and Norwich-New London all land within $800 of each other. Waterbury-Shelton is the outlier at $62,970, nearly $11,000 below the state median.
| Metro Area | Median Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT | $76,680 |
| Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT | $74,360 |
| New Haven, CT | $73,910 |
| Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT | $73,590 |
| Waterbury-Shelton, CT | $62,970 |
State law ties student counseling to certified counselors
Under Connecticut General Statutes Section 10-203c, the State Board of Education had to adopt guidelines for a comprehensive school counseling program by July 1, 2020. Those guidelines must give every student access to academic, social-emotional, and career readiness programming from a certified school counselor. Connecticut law establishes expectations for comprehensive school counseling services provided by certified school counselors. Separate state certification regulations establish eligibility for the School Counselor (068) credential.
CACREP-Accredited School Counseling Programs in Connecticut
Connecticut has six CACREP-accredited school counseling master’s programs, the national accreditor for counseling programs. The table lists them from largest to smallest by graduates.
| Institution | City | Degree | CACREP Accredited Through | Master’s Graduates (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central Connecticut State University | New Britain | M.S. | March 31, 2028, Accredited (Reaffirmation in Process) | 48 |
| Western Connecticut State University | Danbury | M.S. | March 31, 2027, Accredited (Reaffirmation in Process) | 36 |
| University of Connecticut | Storrs | M.A. | October 31, 2033, Accredited (Progress Report Required) | 11 |
| Southern Connecticut State University (Counselor Education) | New Haven | M.S. | March 31, 2027, Accredited (Reaffirmation in Process) | 9 |
| University of Saint Joseph | West Hartford | M.A. | March 31, 2031 | 9 |
| Fairfield University | Fairfield | M.A. | October 31, 2033, Accredited (Progress Report Required) | 3 |
How this table was built. Every program here is accredited by CACREP as a School Counseling program, verified against the CACREP register on September 30, 2026. Any program whose CACREP status shows a teach-out, closure, show-cause or withdrawal is excluded, because a reader cannot reliably enroll in it. Programs are ordered by the number of master’s graduates each university reported to the federal IPEDS survey for 2023 under CIP code 13.1101, which measures size, not quality. That count covers the whole university, so a school running more than one school counseling master’s program reports them together, and a low count can mean some graduates are reported under a different code. Treat the order as a rough guide to size rather than a ranking. Programs with the same count are listed alphabetically. CACREP accreditation is not the same as state approval: check the Connecticut requirements for school counselor certification before you enroll.
Before enrolling, confirm with CSDE that the program satisfies Connecticut’s School Counselor (068) certification requirements.
- 300 openings a year: Connecticut projects about 300 annual openings from 2024 to 2034, most of them from counselors retiring or moving on.
- Pay above the national median: The state median is $73,910 (May 2025), and four of the five metros with published data pay more than $73,000.
- Six accredited programs in-state: CACREP-accredited master’s programs run in New Britain, Danbury, Storrs, New Haven, West Hartford, and Fairfield. Two have accreditation cycles ending March 31, 2027.
- Certification decides who gets hired: Connecticut public school districts hire on the CSDE-issued School Counselor (068) endorsement. The right pathway depends on your education, preparation program, credentials, and experience.
Picked a program or two from the list above? Next, determine which 068 certification pathway applies to you based on your education, preparation program, credentials, and experience.
