Alaska School Counselor
Alaska school counselors earn a median of $82,900 a year (May 2025), well above the $64,330 national median. The state projects about 30 openings a year from 2024 to 2034. You’ll need an approved school counseling master’s and an Alaska Type C Special Services Certificate. One CACREP-accredited program in the state offers the degree.
Alaska Links
Alaska pays school counselors well above the national median, but it doesn’t hire many of them. The role looks a lot like it does in other states, with one notable difference. Counselors here often work in geographically isolated districts where they’re the main mental health support students can reach during the school day.
What School Counselors Do in Alaska
A student at a rural Alaska high school hasn’t turned in an assignment in two weeks. Her teacher flags it to the school counselor, who pulls her in for a quick check-in. Grades turn out to be the last thing on her mind. There’s been a family disruption at home, and she’s been running on three hours of sleep. The counselor works with the teacher to ease the immediate pressure, connects the student with a community resource, and follows up the next week. That’s the core of the job.
Alaska’s Department of Education and Early Development publishes a state school counseling framework. It also points counselors to the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model as a resource. Both organize the work into three areas: academic, career, and social-emotional development. How closely a school’s program follows them varies by district. In practice, the job means running a classroom lesson on study skills one period and sitting with a student in crisis the next.
At the elementary level, counselors build foundational skills like conflict resolution, self-regulation, and how to ask for help. In middle school, the focus shifts toward identity development and preparing students for the academic choices ahead. High school counselors take on college and career planning, credit tracking, and a heavier load of individual check-ins about mental health and life after graduation.
What sets Alaska apart is the number of small, rural districts. The state’s own reporting shows how hard it is to recruit and keep school mental health staff in rural and remote communities. A counselor there may cover several schools, work across cultures and languages, and coordinate with behavioral health aides, tribal health providers, and telehealth services. The Bering Strait School District in western Alaska lists travel on small commuter aircraft as a job requirement. It’s demanding work. For counselors who want to make a tangible difference in an underserved community, it’s also meaningful in a way that’s hard to find anywhere else.
Job Outlook in Alaska
Alaska is projected to have about 30 openings a year from 2024 to 2034. That figure covers educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, the federal occupation that includes school counselors along with some college and career advisors. Nearly all of those openings will come from replacement demand, meaning counselors who retire or move into other work, rather than new positions. Total employment in the occupation is projected to slip from 460 to 450 jobs over the same period, a 2.0% decline.
That’s a small market, and it’s worth knowing before you plan a move. Recent postings show how central certification is. Anchorage requires a Type C certificate with a counseling endorsement plus a school-based internship. The Bering Strait district’s October 2026 posting accepts either a current Type C certificate or enrollment in an approved counseling program, and it advertises signing bonuses and partially subsidized housing. If you’re open to a remote district, ask what support comes with the job.
Already certified in another state? The Alaska school counselor certification guide covers how to bring your credential with you.
School Counselor Salary in Alaska
Alaska school counselors earn a median salary of $82,900 per year (May 2025), well above 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 varies by district, experience, and how remote the position is. These are survey estimates rather than district pay scales, so check the posted salary schedule for any district you’re considering.
| Percentile | Annual Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| 10th | $50,870 |
| 25th | $63,290 |
| Median (50th) | $82,900 |
| 75th | $97,820 |
| 90th | $103,420 |
| Metro Area | Median Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| Anchorage, AK | $82,900 |
| Fairbanks-College, AK | $80,220 |
CACREP-Accredited School Counseling Programs in Alaska
Alaska has one CACREP-accredited school counseling program, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. CACREP confirms the program is offered online, which matters in a state where many future counselors live far from a campus. Our state tables are ordered by program size, not quality. With a single program, there’s no order here at all.
| Institution | City | Degree | Accredited Through | Master’s Graduates (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Alaska Fairbanks | Fairbanks | M.Ed. | April 30, 2034 | 12 |
If you live outside Alaska, the University of Alaska is eliminating nonresident tuition starting in fall 2027. Students who enroll in 2026-27 still pay the higher nonresident rate in their first year. Confirm the rate for your start term with UAF before you enroll.
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. Programs with the same count are listed alphabetically. 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 Alaska requirements for school counselor certification before you enroll.
How One Anchorage School Put Mental Health First
At Benny Benson Alternative High School in Anchorage, counselor Karen Hobart told Alaska Public Media in 2022 that her job is to make sure kids graduate. Often that means looking past grades to connect students with food, safe transportation, and mental health care.
Teachers are part of that system. Language arts teacher Katherine Reiman described talking with students directly when she’s concerned, then looping in the counselor. From there, Hobart could refer students to a mental health clinician based in the school building. She said that mattered because students often didn’t follow through on referrals that sent them somewhere else.
- Small job market: Alaska projects about 30 openings a year from 2024 to 2034 for school, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, almost all of them replacing people who leave.
- Pay above the national median: Alaska’s median is $82,900 (May 2025), compared with $64,330 nationally.
- Rural and remote work: Many positions are in small districts where counselors may cover several schools and travel by small plane.
- One in-state program: The University of Alaska Fairbanks offers the state’s only CACREP-accredited school counseling master’s, with CACREP-confirmed online delivery.
A common path into Alaska school counseling starts with an approved master’s program and ends with a Type C Special Services Certificate, with several state requirements in between. Here’s what each step involves.
