California School Counselor
California school counselors serve students from pre-K through 12th grade. The state projects about 4,030 job openings a year from 2024 to 2034, and the May 2025 median wage is $86,500, the highest of any state. You’ll need a PPS Credential, usually earned through a state-approved graduate program in school counseling. Three programs in the state are CACREP-accredited.
California Links
California employs more educational, guidance, and career counselors than any other state and, as of May 2025, pays them the highest median wage. It also asks a lot of them. The statewide student-to-counselor ratio remains well above the recommended level, and staffing varies widely from one district to the next. Here’s what the job, the job market, and the pay look like right now.
What School Counselors Do in California
At the elementary level, a school counselor might spend Tuesday morning leading a small-group session on managing anxiety for third-graders whose test scores dipped after a tough school year. By afternoon, she meets with a fourth-grade teacher whose student has started coming to school without lunch, and they coordinate to connect the family with the district’s social services team. Direct student support and systemic coordination are both part of the job.
California school counselors work across three domains defined by the ASCA National Model: academic development, career development, and social/emotional development. At the high school level, that might mean helping a first-generation college applicant navigate the UC application process while also running a weekly check-in group for students experiencing grief. In middle school, it often looks like mediating a conflict before it escalates and then following up individually with each student over the next few weeks.
California Education Code §49600 spells out what educational counseling covers in the state. AB 2508, signed in 2022, rewrote that section to name direct services, including individual and group counseling, risk assessment, crisis response, and mental and behavioral health services, alongside academic and postsecondary counseling. In practice, California counselors are increasingly expected to work as part of a school’s mental health team, not only as college-and-career advisors.
To practice, you’ll need a California Pupil Personnel Services (PPS) Credential with a school counseling specialization, issued by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. The standard route is a Commission-approved graduate program of at least 48 semester units, and the California school counselor certification page covers the other pathways and the application steps.
Job Outlook in California
According to California’s Employment Development Department, the state projects about 4,030 openings a year for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors from 2024 to 2034, more than any other state. Most of those openings will come from counselors retiring or leaving the field, not from new positions. Employment in the occupation is projected to grow 5.5% over the same period, compared with 3.5% nationally in the same 2024-2034 projection round.
Staffing is the other half of the story. California averaged 432 students per school counselor in 2024-25, according to the American School Counselor Association, compared with 372 nationally and well above ASCA’s recommended 250 to 1. That average hides a wide spread. How many counselors a district hires depends on its budget priorities and on state, federal, and other funding, including the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). That’s why two schools a few miles apart can have very different counseling teams.
The state also pays districts to train school counselor residents (see the box below), but that doesn’t replace local hiring decisions.
School Counselor Salary in California
California school counselors earn a median salary of $86,500 per year (May 2025), $22,170 above the national median of $64,330 and the highest of any state. These figures cover the federal category for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, which includes some workers outside K-12 schools. About 45,140 people worked in that category in California in May 2025, more than in any other state.
Most public school counselors are paid on a district salary schedule that sets pay by years of experience and graduate units, so a new counselor usually starts below the median and moves up in steps.
| Percentile | Annual Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| 10th | $51,890 |
| 25th | $63,910 |
| Median (50th) | $86,500 |
| 75th | $119,790 |
| 90th | $136,660 |
Among the state’s six largest metro areas by employment, medians run from $79,000 in Los Angeles to $100,930 in Sacramento (May 2025).
| Metro Area | Median Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | $100,930 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | $96,780 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $95,390 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $94,600 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $83,520 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | $79,000 |
CACREP-Accredited School Counseling Programs in California
Three California programs hold CACREP accreditation as school counseling programs. The table orders them by how many master’s graduates each university reported, which measures size, not quality.
| Institution | City | Degree | Accredited Through | Master’s Graduates (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California State University Sacramento | Sacramento | M.S. | March 31, 2029 | 85 |
| San Francisco State University | San Francisco | M.S. | October 31, 2027 | 36 |
The University of San Diego in San Diego, which offers an M.A., is also CACREP-accredited, through April 30, 2034. 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 California State University Sacramento as Accredited (Progress Report Required), San Francisco State University as Accredited (Reaffirmation in Process), and the University of San Diego as Accredited (Progress Report Required).
CACREP accreditation isn’t required for the PPS credential, and it doesn’t determine whether a program counts in California. What counts is approval from the Commission on Teacher Credentialing for the PPS school counseling credential, so check the Commission’s approved-program list for any program you’re considering, including programs at universities not in this table.
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 California requirements for school counselor certification before you enroll.
California pays districts to train school counselor residents
Under Education Code §44415.6, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing awards grants to districts that partner with an approved PPS school counseling program, so residents can train at least half-time alongside a mentor counselor for a full school year. In the grant round that closed in February 2026, a district could receive up to $40,000 per resident, had to pay each resident at least $20,000 in salary or stipends, and had to provide matching funds in cash or in kind. You can’t apply for the money yourself: you’d enter through a funded district partnership, agree to work at least four school years in a California public school, and could be asked to repay some training costs, such as tuition, if you don’t finish the credential or the service period.
- Highest state median: California’s median is $86,500 a year (May 2025), $22,170 above the national median, for a federal category that also includes career counselors and advisors.
- Openings drive the market: about 4,030 openings a year from 2024 to 2034, mostly to replace counselors who retire or leave.
- Ratios are still high: California averaged 432 students per counselor in 2024-25, against ASCA’s recommended 250 to 1.
- Mental health is in the job description: AB 2508 (2022) added direct services such as individual counseling and crisis response to Education Code §49600.
- Credential first, then program: California requires a PPS Credential. Three programs in the state hold CACREP accreditation, but Commission approval is what counts toward the credential.
Comparing PPS programs or working out how long the credential takes? Start with the step-by-step path.
