Florida School Counselor Salary, Jobs and Accredited Programs
Florida school counselors earn a median of $53,140 a year, based on May 2025 BLS data for the broader category of educational, guidance, and career counselors. The national median is $64,330. Florida projects about 2,240 openings a year from 2024 to 2034. The Florida Department of Education issues certification, and eight CACREP-accredited programs operate in the state.
Florida Links
Florida employs about 22,800 educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, the fourth-largest workforce in the country (BLS, May 2025). The work runs from Miami-Dade high schools to small Panhandle districts, and the pay varies just as widely. Certification comes from the Florida Department of Education’s Bureau of Educator Certification, which offers more than one route in, including one for counselors whose master’s is in another counseling field.
What School Counselors Do in Florida
A lot of the job is problem-solving for students who can’t always advocate for themselves. Imagine a high school junior in Tampa who’s been absent more than usual. Her grades have slipped, and a teacher flags it to the counselor. Before the day is out, the counselor has talked with the student, looped in her parent, and connected the family to a community resource to address the transportation problem keeping her home. Nobody called it a crisis. It was just Tuesday.
That’s the core of the work: noticing what’s going on beneath the surface and addressing it before it becomes a bigger problem.
Florida school counselors work at every grade level, and the job shifts with the setting. In elementary school, much of it is social-emotional learning: teaching students to manage conflict, handle frustration, and build the skills they’ll carry through school. In middle and high school, the focus moves toward academic planning, career exploration, and the college application process.
Many Florida districts build their counseling programs around the ASCA National Model, which organizes the work into four components: Define, Deliver, Manage, and Assess. The Florida School Counselor Association (FSCA), a chartered ASCA division since 1964, supports counselors statewide through professional development and advocacy.
Caseloads are the hard part. ASCA’s 2024-25 data puts Florida at 425 students per school counselor, compared with the 250 ASCA recommends. Know that going in. The work is rewarding, and it’s also demanding.
Job Outlook in Florida
Florida projects about 2,240 openings a year for school and career counselors from 2024 to 2034, the fourth-highest figure among the states. Those openings come from two places: new positions and counselors who retire or leave the field and need to be replaced.
Employment in the occupation is projected to grow 13.7% in Florida from 2024 to 2034, compared with 3.5% nationwide in the same Projections Central projections. That’s a strong number, and it’s attached to a large state, which means real choice about where you work. You could land in a big district like Miami-Dade, Broward, or Hillsborough, or in a smaller district along the Gulf Coast or in the Panhandle.
Most school counselor jobs in Florida are posted directly on district hiring sites, so bookmark the districts where you’d actually want to live.
School Counselor Salary in Florida
Florida school counselors, still called guidance counselors in many districts, earn a median salary of $53,140 a year (May 2025), below the national median of $64,330. These figures cover the federal category for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, which includes some workers outside K-12 schools. Pay also varies a lot by location, from a $46,900 median in Tallahassee to $81,380 in Naples-Marco Island. If you’re weighing a specific district, check its salary schedule for instructional personnel, the category Florida law places certified school counselors in.
| Percentile | Annual Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| 10th | $38,290 |
| 25th | $46,800 |
| Median (50th) | $53,140 |
| 75th | $66,800 |
| 90th | $82,780 |
| Metro Area | Median Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach | $57,110 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater | $56,060 |
| Jacksonville | $55,520 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford | $48,840 |
| Naples-Marco Island | $81,380 |
| Panama City-Panama City Beach | $67,200 |
CACREP-Accredited School Counseling Programs in Florida
Eight CACREP-accredited school counseling programs operate in Florida. The table lists seven of them by the number of master’s graduates each university reported in 2023, which measures size, not quality.
| Institution | City | Degree | Accredited Through | Master’s Graduates (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Central Florida | Orlando | M.A./M.Ed. | October 31, 2030 | 69 |
| Florida State University | Tallahassee | M.S./Ed.S. | March 31, 2028 | 54 |
| Florida Atlantic University | Boca Raton | M.Ed. | March 31, 2032 | 50 |
| Florida International University | Miami | M.S. | March 31, 2030 | 41 |
| University of South Florida, College of Education | Tampa | M.A. | October 31, 2030 | 16 |
| University of North Florida, College of Education and Human Services | Jacksonville | M.Ed. | March 31, 2033 | 14 |
| University of Florida | Gainesville | M.S./Ed.S. | March 31, 2029 | 12 |
Barry University in Miami Shores is also CACREP-accredited, through October 31, 2027. It does not report graduates under the federal code used here, so it is listed separately rather than placed in the size order.
CACREP lists Barry University as Accredited (Reaffirmation in Process). It lists the University of Florida and the University of North Florida as Accredited (Progress Report Required). The other five programs are listed as Accredited.
CACREP accreditation alone doesn’t make you eligible for Florida certification. Before you enroll, confirm with the program that its coursework and supervised internship meet the current requirements in State Board of Education Rule 6A-4.0181, and contact FLDOE’s Bureau of Educator Certification if you’re unsure.
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 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. Where a university reports no graduates under that code we name it below the table rather than place it in the order. CACREP accreditation is not the same as state approval: check the Florida requirements for school counselor certification before you enroll.
Florida funds school mental health staff through the state budget
The 2026-27 Florida Education Finance Program includes $180 million for the Mental Health Assistance Allocation, the same amount as in 2025-26. Under state law, each district’s mental health plan must include directly hiring school-based mental health providers to bring staffing closer to nationally recommended ratios, and certified school counselors are named among those providers. Districts also report to the state each year how many providers they employ, by license type, so a district’s plan is a good read if you’re job hunting.
- About 2,240 openings a year: Florida projects that many from 2024 to 2034, with employment in the occupation up 13.7% over the period.
- Pay sits below the national median: The May 2025 Florida median for educational, guidance, and career counselors is $53,140, and metro medians range from $46,900 in Tallahassee to $81,380 in Naples-Marco Island.
- Eight accredited programs: CACREP accreditation isn’t the same as Florida certification eligibility, so confirm a program meets Rule 6A-4.0181 before you enroll.
- Real work, real caseloads: Florida averaged 425 students per school counselor in 2024-25, well above the 250 that ASCA recommends.
Found a program on the list above? The next step is knowing which Florida certification pathway fits you, including the FTCE School Counseling PK-12 subject area exam.
