Kentucky School Counselor
Kentucky school counselors work with students from kindergarten through 12th grade. The state projects about 410 job openings a year from 2024 to 2034, and the May 2025 median wage is $64,350. You’ll need a master’s in school counseling and a provisional school counselor certificate from Kentucky’s EPSB. Two programs in the state are CACREP-accredited in school counseling.
Kentucky Links
About 5,030 people in Kentucky work in the federal category for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors (May 2025), which includes school counselors along with some career counselors and academic advisors. They work everywhere from Louisville and Lexington to rural districts in Appalachian Eastern Kentucky, and some public schools still have no certified counselor. Here’s what the job involves, what it pays, and where you can train for it.
What School Counselors Do in Kentucky
On December 17, 2018, the Kentucky Counselor Standards Advisory Committee met at the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) in Frankfort and defined the role in a single sentence: a Kentucky school counselor is a certified mental health professional supporting all K-12 students in their social/emotional, academic and career development. That definition shapes what a Kentucky counselor does every day.
At the elementary level, a counselor might spend the morning running small-group sessions for students dealing with family stress, then lead a classroom lesson on problem-solving in the afternoon. At the high school level, the same three areas look different. A counselor might help a junior map out a college application timeline, meet one-on-one with a student showing signs of anxiety, and work with a teacher on a student’s 504 accommodation plan, often all in the same day.
Kentucky school counselors work within the ASCA National Model, and KDE has published its own Kentucky Framework of Best Practices for School Counselors to guide how school counseling programs are designed and delivered. Many districts also place counselors on teams within the Kentucky Multi-Tiered System of Supports (KyMTSS), a prevention framework designed to identify and support at-risk students before problems escalate.
The role is broad by design. Counselors collaborate with teachers, administrators, and families, contribute to school-wide data reviews, and coordinate community referrals when a student needs more than the school can provide. Kentucky law also sets a goal, rather than a strict mandate, that counselors spend at least 60% of their time providing counseling and related services directly to students.
Job Outlook in Kentucky
Kentucky projects about 410 openings a year for school and career counselors from 2024 to 2034. Most of those openings come from counselors retiring or leaving the field, not from new positions. Employment in the category is projected to grow 3.4% over the same period, in line with the 3.5% projected nationally for the occupation in that round.
Staffing is the bigger story here. As funds and qualified personnel become available, Kentucky law requires each district to employ at least one school counselor in each school, and it sets a goal of one school counselor or school-based mental health services provider, employed by the district, for every 250 students. Either role counts toward that ratio, so it isn’t a rule that every school needs one certified counselor per 250 students. Even so, in the 2025-26 school year, more than 100 Kentucky public schools had no certified school counselor at all.
A school without a counselor doesn’t always mean an open job posting. In 2022, KDE reported that 73% of school counselor funding came from local district resources and 16% from state funds, so staffing depends heavily on each district’s budget.
Kentucky’s Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) issues school counselor certificates in two stages under 16 KAR 3:060. The five-year provisional certificate requires an approved master’s program in school counseling. The standard certificate adds 3 to 6 more graduate credit hours plus experience: either two years of full-time work as a provisionally certified counselor, or one year as a counselor combined with a Kentucky Professional teaching certificate and a year of full-time classroom teaching. The Kentucky school counselor certification page covers both in detail.
School Counselor Salary in Kentucky
Kentucky school counselors earn a median salary of $64,350 a year (May 2025), essentially level with 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. Kentucky also classifies certified educators by rank under state law (KRS 161.1211), based on graduate degrees and coursework, and rank feeds into the salary schedule. That’s one reason two counselor postings in the same district can list different pay.
| Percentile | Annual Salary |
|---|---|
| 10th | $40,840 |
| 25th | $49,080 |
| Median (50th) | $64,350 |
| 75th | $78,580 |
| 90th | $99,390 |
Metro medians range from $82,770 in Elizabethtown to $56,840 in the East Kentucky nonmetropolitan area (May 2025). Elizabethtown’s figure comes from a small group of about 100 workers, so treat it as a rough signal rather than a promise.
| Metro Area | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Elizabethtown, KY | $82,770 |
| Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN | $72,910 |
| West Kentucky nonmetropolitan area | $66,140 |
| Bowling Green, KY | $65,310 |
| Lexington-Fayette, KY | $65,230 |
| East Kentucky nonmetropolitan area | $56,840 |
CACREP-Accredited School Counseling Programs in Kentucky
Two Kentucky universities hold CACREP accreditation for a school counseling master’s program. They’re listed by the number of master’s graduates each reported for 2023, which reflects size, not quality.
| Institution | City | Degree | Accredited Through | Master’s Graduates (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Kentucky University | Richmond | M.A.Ed. | October 31, 2027 | 25 |
| Northern Kentucky University | Highland Heights | M.A. | October 31, 2030 | 2 |
Eastern Kentucky University’s CACREP status is Accredited (Reaffirmation in Process), and its current accreditation cycle runs through October 31, 2027.
More than 100 Kentucky schools had no certified counselor in 2025-26
Kentucky’s Office of the State School Security Marshal assessed 1,332 public schools during the 2025-26 school year. Of those, 108 (8.11%) had no certified school counselor employed, and 627 (47.07%) reported that their district did not meet the state goal of one school counselor or school-based mental health services provider for every 250 students. For anyone entering the field, that’s the clearest picture of where counselors are most needed, though filling those gaps depends as much on district budgets as on applicants.
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 program 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. CACREP accreditation is not the same as state approval: check the Kentucky requirements for school counselor certification before you enroll.
- Openings, not a boom: Kentucky projects about 410 school and career counselor openings a year from 2024 to 2034, mostly from counselors leaving the field.
- Pay level with the nation: The May 2025 median is $64,350, essentially even with the national $64,330, and the Louisville-area median is $72,910.
- Real staffing gaps: 108 of 1,332 public schools assessed in 2025-26 had no certified school counselor.
- Two CACREP programs in-state: Eastern Kentucky University and Northern Kentucky University hold CACREP accreditation in school counseling.
- Two certificate stages: The EPSB issues a provisional school counselor certificate after an approved master’s program and a standard certificate once you add graduate credit and counseling experience.
You’ve seen what the job pays in Kentucky and where it’s taught. Our step-by-step guide covers the degree, fieldwork, and certification you’ll need, in the order you’ll need them.
