Illinois School Counselor
Illinois school counselors work with students from pre-K through 12th grade. The state projects about 1,170 job openings a year from 2024 to 2034, and the May 2025 median wage is $62,420. You’ll need a master’s in school counseling and an Illinois Professional Educator License with a school counselor endorsement. Eleven CACREP-accredited programs in the state offer the degree.
Illinois Links
Illinois treats school counseling as licensed educator work. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) issues the credential, a Professional Educator License (PEL) with a school counselor endorsement. It’s an Illinois license, not a national one, and other states set their own requirements. ISBE also organizes the job around three domains: academic, college and career, and social-emotional. Here’s what that looks like day to day, what it pays, and where you can train for it.
What School Counselors Do in Illinois
Think about a sophomore named DeShawn. He’s been showing up late, skipping advisory, and his grades in two classes just slipped from Bs to Ds. His teachers flag it, and his school counselor pulls him in for a check-in. Turns out his family moved recently, he lost his after-school job, and he’s been taking the bus across town to get to school. Forty minutes later, DeShawn has submitted a bus pass request, a revised homework plan, and a follow-up appointment already on the calendar. That’s what this work looks like day to day.
ISBE’s guidance on the role, written under the Illinois School Code (105 ILCS 5/10-22.24), spells out what that support includes. Counselors teach a counseling curriculum in classrooms, provide individual and group counseling, and refer students to outside agencies when a student needs more than the school can offer. They also build an individual career plan and a personal educational plan with each student. Picture a stress-management lesson in the morning and a meeting after lunch with a student thinking about dropping out. Before the final bell, a teacher talks with a student about a behavior plan.
At the elementary level, much of the work is developmental. Counselors teach classroom lessons on friendship, conflict resolution, and managing big feelings. Individual and small-group counseling usually focuses on behavior and family transitions, and the relationships built early can prevent bigger problems later.
Middle school brings a different set of pressures. Counselors help students handle the social side of adolescence, watch for early signs of anxiety and depression, and start guiding course choices with high school in mind. A lot of the work is reactive, with students arriving in crisis, but the strongest programs build prevention into the whole year.
In high school, college and career planning takes center stage. Counselors help students build application lists, complete financial aid forms, and understand what each post-graduation path actually involves. In December 2024, ISBE launched its School Profile Initiative to help high schools build the profile that explains a school’s courses and grading to colleges. ISBE notes that counselors typically lead that work, and that fewer than half of public high schools send colleges a profile at all.
Illinois counselors work from the ASCA National Model and its state adaptation, the Illinois Model. The Illinois School Counselor Association and the Illinois Counseling Association published it in consultation with ISBE. Both organize the job around the same three domains, so expect your coursework and internship to follow them too.
Job Outlook in Illinois
Illinois’ long-term occupational projections show about 1,170 openings a year for school, guidance, and career counselors from 2024 to 2034. Most of those come from counselors retiring or leaving the field, not from new positions. The projected net gain over the decade is 920 jobs, a 6.8% increase, compared with 3.5% nationally in the same projection round.
As of May 2025, about 13,580 people worked in this occupation in Illinois, according to the BLS wage survey. Many districts post openings on the Illinois Education Job Bank. Postings typically require a master’s in school counseling and a PEL with the school counselor endorsement.
Caseload is the part of the job worth asking about early. ISBE recommends that districts staff one counselor for every 250 students, the same ratio the American School Counselor Association recommends. Not every district meets it, so ask about caseload size in interviews.
School Counselor Salary in Illinois
Illinois counselors in this category earned a median of $62,420 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a little below the national median of $64,330. These figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for occupation code 21-1012: Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors. That group includes some workers outside K-12 schools. Pay also depends on your district’s salary schedule, your experience, and where you work in the state. The Chicago metro area is highest at $64,730, while the South Illinois nonmetro area is $46,850.
| Percentile | Annual Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| 10th | $44,890 |
| 25th | $49,720 |
| Median (50th) | $62,420 |
| 75th | $82,890 |
| 90th | $110,580 |
| Metro Area | Median Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $64,730 |
| Rockford, IL | $62,610 |
| Peoria, IL | $59,510 |
| Champaign-Urbana, IL | $58,230 |
| Springfield, IL | $57,210 |
| South Illinois nonmetropolitan area | $46,850 |
CACREP-Accredited School Counseling Programs in Illinois
Eleven Illinois universities offer a CACREP-accredited school counseling program. The table lists the six that report graduates under the federal code used here, ordered by how many master’s graduates each reported in 2023. That’s a measure of size, not quality.
| Institution | City | Degree | Accredited Through | Master’s Graduates (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western Illinois University – Quad Cities | Moline | M.S.Ed. | April 30, 2033 | 28 |
| Northeastern Illinois University | Chicago | M.A. | March 31, 2033 | 27 |
| Northern Illinois University, College of Education | DeKalb | M.S.Ed. | October 31, 2027 | 23 |
| Eastern Illinois University | Charleston | M.S. | October 31, 2030 | 17 |
| Roosevelt University | Chicago | M.A. | October 31, 2030 | 9 |
| Chicago State University | Chicago | M.A. | October 31, 2027 | 3 |
Five more Illinois programs are CACREP-accredited but don’t report graduates under the federal code used here. They’re listed separately rather than placed in the size order: DePaul University in Chicago (accredited through March 31, 2027), Governors State University in University Park (through March 31, 2031), National Louis University in Chicago (through March 31, 2028), Quincy University in Quincy (through October 31, 2027), and the University of Illinois Springfield in Springfield (through April 30, 2034).
Seven of the eleven carry a CACREP qualifier. Chicago State University, DePaul University, National Louis University, Northern Illinois University, and Quincy University are listed as Accredited (Reaffirmation in Process). Governors State University and the University of Illinois Springfield are listed as Accredited (Progress Report Required).
Western Illinois University’s program is based at its Quad Cities campus in Moline, which has consolidated into Riverfront Hall, and some department pages still list the former building. Its graduate count covers all of Western Illinois University, because federal data doesn’t report the Quad Cities campus separately.
Whichever program you choose, confirm it leads to the Illinois PEL with a school counselor endorsement. If you train through an Illinois-approved program, ISBE’s rules typically call for a supervised practicum of at least 100 hours. The internship runs at least 600 hours, though a program can cut it to no fewer than 400 if you’ve taught for at least two years. Most Illinois program candidates also take the Illinois Licensure Testing System (ILTS) School Counselor test (235). Applicants who hold an active Illinois Licensed Professional Counselor or Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor license can have the test waived. If you finished a program or earned a school counselor license in another state, you’ll follow a different route. The Illinois school counselor certification page walks through each pathway.
Illinois to require annual offers of student mental health screenings starting in 2027-28, subject to state-provided screening tools
Under Public Act 104-0032, enacted in 2025 and effective January 1, 2026, Illinois school districts must offer mental health screenings to students in grades 3 through 12. Districts must offer the screenings at least once a year, starting with the 2027-28 school year. The requirement applies only in years when the state has secured a free screening tool that lets students self-report, and districts can apply for an extension. The law doesn’t say who runs the screenings, so if you’re interviewing, ask how counselors fit into the district’s plan.
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 Illinois requirements for school counselor certification before you enroll.
- About 1,170 openings a year. Illinois projects many openings from 2024 to 2034, mostly from counselors retiring or leaving the field.
- Pay is close to the national median. The May 2025 Illinois median is $62,420, with the Chicago metro higher and rural southern Illinois lower.
- Three domains, every grade. ISBE frames the job around academic, college and career, and social-emotional work from pre-K through 12th grade.
- Eleven CACREP-accredited programs. Six report 2023 graduates under the federal code, five don’t, and accreditation isn’t the same as state approval.
- A licensed role. Candidates trained in Illinois typically need a master’s, a practicum and internship, and an Illinois Professional Educator License with School Counselor Endorsement. Applicants licensed in another state follow a separate route.
Picked out a program or two above? Next, understand how ISBE licenses school counselors. That means the PEL, the school counselor endorsement, the Illinois Licensure Testing System (ILTS) School Counselor test (235), and the internship that ties them together. Which testing and internship requirements apply to you depends on your licensure pathway.
