Delaware School Counselor
School counselors in Delaware earned a median of $74,070 in May 2025, above the $64,330 national median. Public school counselors need a Delaware educator license plus an Elementary or Secondary School Counselor Standard Certificate from the Department of Education, which requires a qualifying preparation route, a Praxis exam, and 700 supervised clinical hours.
Delaware Links
Delaware is a small state that did something most states haven’t. Between 2021 and 2024, it wrote school mental health staffing formulas into law, one grade band at a time. Here’s what the work looks like, what it pays, and how to qualify when no Delaware program is CACREP-accredited in school counseling.
What School Counselors Do in Delaware
A junior at a Wilmington high school is on track academically but has no idea which colleges to consider, what financial aid looks like, or whether her grades are competitive. Her counselor spends two sessions helping her pick three schools that fit her goals, walks her through the FAFSA timeline, and flags a state scholarship she didn’t know existed. That’s one afternoon. The caseload has 280 other students.
That range, from college advising to mental health support and crisis response, is the job. At the elementary level, counselors teach classroom lessons on emotion regulation and conflict resolution, spot students who need extra behavioral support, and work with teachers when a child’s home life is getting in the way of learning. In middle school, the focus shifts toward academic planning, early intervention for students who are falling behind, and social development.
High school counselors spend much of their time on what comes after graduation: college applications, career exploration, dual enrollment, and connections to Delaware Pathways, which links students to structured career and technical education tracks in areas like manufacturing, construction, education, and financial services.
Delaware builds its counseling programs around the ASCA National Model, which organizes the work across academic, career, and social-emotional development. Here, that’s a state requirement, not a professional preference. Delaware’s Regulation 545 requires every Delaware public school to run a comprehensive counseling program aligned with the ASCA National Model and to keep a written plan using Department of Education templates. The Delaware School Counselor Association (DSCA) hosts professional development conferences and runs the state School Counselor of the Year award.
Job Outlook in Delaware
Projections show Delaware has one of the stronger school counseling job markets in the country. Employment in this occupation is projected to grow 15.3% from 2024 to 2034, compared with 3.5% nationally over the same period, with about 200 openings a year in Delaware, according to Projections Central. Those openings include new positions and replacements for counselors who retire or change careers.
The projection doesn’t give a reason, but the timing lines up with the state’s staffing laws (see the box below). One honest caveat: Delaware funds these as mental health units, and a district can fill a unit with a school counselor, a school social worker, or a licensed clinical social worker. More units don’t automatically mean more counselor jobs, although the high school bill’s synopsis tells districts to prioritize counselors who provide mental health services.
BLS counted about 1,700 people working in this occupation in Delaware in May 2025.
School Counselor Salary in Delaware
Delaware school counselors earned a median salary of $74,070 in May 2025, about $9,740 above the national median of $64,330. BLS reports these figures for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, a group that includes school counselors along with college and career advisors. For a state-by-state comparison, see our guide to school counselor salaries.
Pay varies by district, education, and experience.
| Percentile | Annual Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| 10th | $47,750 |
| 25th | $59,700 |
| Median (50th) | $74,070 |
| 75th | $88,900 |
| 90th | $96,140 |
BLS publishes area data for only a few places in a state this size, but the differences are worth knowing:
| Area | Median Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| Sussex County (nonmetro) | $82,220 |
| Dover, DE | $74,620 |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metro (PA-NJ-DE-MD) | $66,190 |
The Philadelphia metro figure covers the Wilmington corridor, which shares a labor market with southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey. Sussex County, home to coastal towns like Rehoboth Beach and Lewes, posts the highest median in the state’s BLS data, which is worth noting if you’re open to working outside the Wilmington-Dover corridor.
Delaware wrote school mental health staffing into law, grade by grade
Between 2021 and 2024, Delaware passed three laws that fund one mental health position for every 250 full-time-equivalent (FTE) students: HB 100 for grades K-5 (signed August 2021), HB 300 for grades 6-8 (signed August 2022), and HB 200 for grades 9-12 (signed August 2024). Each funded position can be filled by an eligible school counselor, school social worker, or licensed clinical social worker, and the middle and high school units phase in over three years. For future counselors, that means more funded positions in every grade band, with districts deciding which roles to hire.
Certification and Training in Delaware
To work as a public school counselor in Delaware, you need two credentials from the Department of Education: an educator license and a School Counselor Standard Certificate. If you’re new to Delaware, you apply for the Initial License and the certificate together. The Elementary certificate is required for grades K-5 and the Secondary certificate for grades 9-12, and middle schools accept either.
For a first certificate, the regulations require three things. You need a qualifying preparation route (covered below) and a passing Praxis score: 159 on the School Counselor test (5422), or 156 on the Professional School Counselor test (5421). You also need 700 hours of supervised clinical experience in a school at your certificate level, completed as part of your graduate program under a Department-certified, practicing school counselor. If you want both certificates at once, the hours split into 350 at the elementary level and 350 at the secondary level. The Delaware school counselor certification page covers the full process.
No Delaware college or university currently holds CACREP accreditation for a School Counseling program, based on the CACREP register as we verified it on September 30, 2026. That matters less than you might expect, because CACREP accreditation isn’t required for every route to Delaware certification. The regulations also accept a Department-approved educator preparation program, a master’s degree with at least 30 semester hours of school counseling coursework from a program approved by CACREP or by a state using appropriate standards, a master’s in any field plus 39 specified graduate credits in school counseling, or National Board certification in school counseling. The Department of Education approves every educator preparation program operating in Delaware, so ask any in-state program whether its school counseling track is Department-approved.
If you want a CACREP-accredited degree, look at programs in neighboring states on our Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey pages, or at online CACREP-accredited programs. For students entering on or after July 1, 2026, CACREP requires programs, including online ones, to offer at least two synchronous skills-assessment experiences, one before practicum. Programs set the length and format, which can be in person or live online, so ask how a program schedules them.
Whichever route you take, confirm before you enroll that the program’s coursework and clinical hours line up with Delaware’s certificate requirements.
- Strong projected growth: Employment is projected to grow 15.3% from 2024 to 2034, with about 200 openings a year.
- Above-average pay: The May 2025 median is $74,070, about $9,740 above the national median.
- Two credentials required: You need a Delaware educator license plus an Elementary or Secondary School Counselor Standard Certificate, which requires a Praxis score and 700 supervised clinical hours.
- Staffing written into law: State law funds one mental health position per 250 FTE students in every grade band, filled by eligible counselors or social workers.
- More than one route: CACREP accreditation isn’t required for every certification route, so compare state-approved, neighboring-state, and online options against Delaware’s rules.
Before you choose a program, clarify Delaware’s certification route. Everything else follows from it.
