Minnesota School Counselor
Minnesota school counselors work with students from pre-K through grade 12. The state projects about 350 job openings a year from 2024 to 2034, and the May 2025 median wage is $64,600. The standard Tier 3 license from PELSB requires a master’s in school counseling or its equivalent. Seven CACREP-accredited programs in the state offer the degree.
Minnesota Links
In 2023-24, Minnesota had one school counselor for every 541 students. That’s more than double the 250-to-1 ratio the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends, and well above the national figure of 376 to 1. That gap shapes the job here, from caseload size to how districts use new state money to hire.
What School Counselors Do in Minnesota
One PELSB school counselor license covers pre-K through grade 12, so the same credential can take you to any grade level. The work itself changes a lot depending on where you land.
Say a second grader in St. Cloud named Ava has started hiding in the bathroom right before math. A check-in with her teacher and a call home turn up a new baby, a parent working nights and a kid who isn’t sleeping. The counselor adds Ava to a short lunch group for students with new siblings and gives her teacher a quiet signal Ava can use when she needs a break. A few weeks later, she’s staying in class for the whole math block.
In middle school, friendships and grades start to carry real weight. Picture an eighth grader in Rochester who’s failing two classes after a falling-out with his friend group. He needs a plan to recover those grades, and he needs someone to talk to about why lunch has become the worst part of his day. A counselor handles both.
High school counselors spend more time on course planning, graduation requirements and life after high school. A common conversation in Duluth: a junior weighing Postsecondary Enrollment Options (PSEO), Minnesota’s program for taking college courses in high school, against a full schedule of classes at her own school.
The hard part is volume. Minnesota law doesn’t require a specific ratio. The statute only strongly encourages districts to keep an “adequate” one, so your caseload depends heavily on which district hires you. Many counselors also pick up testing coordination and lunch supervision, which cuts into time with students.
ASCA’s National Model gives you a framework for organizing the work. It splits your time between direct services to students, such as classroom lessons, small groups, and individual counseling, and indirect services like consulting with teachers and families. ASCA recommends spending at least 80% of your time on those two.
Job Outlook in Minnesota
Minnesota projects about 350 openings a year for school and career counselors from 2024 to 2034. Most of those come from counselors retiring or leaving the field, not from new positions. Employment in the occupation, which also includes college and career advisors, is projected to rise 4.0% over the decade, from 4,220 to 4,400 jobs. The national figure for the same period is 3.5%.
Location matters. The Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, which reaches into western Wisconsin, had about 3,050 jobs in this occupation in May 2025, more than any other metro in the state. Outside the Twin Cities, openings are fewer but spread across regional centers like Rochester, St. Cloud, Mankato, and Duluth.
School Counselor Salary in Minnesota
Minnesota school counselors earned a median salary of $64,600 in May 2025, about $270 above the national median of $64,330. These BLS figures cover the broader occupation of educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, so they include people working outside K-12 schools, such as college advisors. Public school counselors are typically paid on their district’s negotiated salary schedule, so your starting pay depends on your education and years of experience.
| Percentile | Annual Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| 10th | $47,870 |
| 25th | $57,390 |
| Median (50th) | $64,600 |
| 75th | $78,100 |
| 90th | $94,100 |
| Metro Area | Median Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| Rochester, MN | $66,570 |
| St. Cloud, MN | $64,910 |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | $64,600 |
| Mankato, MN | $62,440 |
| Duluth, MN-WI | $59,280 |
Rochester has the highest median of the five Minnesota metros. Duluth sits about $5,300 below the state figure.
CACREP-Accredited School Counseling Programs in Minnesota
Seven Minnesota programs hold CACREP accreditation in school counseling. The table lists them by the number of master’s graduates each university reported, which reflects size, not quality. If you’re also weighing cost, our guide to school counseling master’s programs covers tuition and online options.
| Institution | City | Degree | Accredited Through | Master’s Graduates (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capella University | Minneapolis | M.S. | March 31, 2028 | 178 |
| Walden University | Minneapolis | M.S. | October 31, 2033 | 178 |
| Minnesota State University Moorhead | Moorhead | M.S. | October 31, 2032 | 24 |
| St. Cloud State University | St. Cloud | M.S. | October 31, 2032 | 7 |
| Winona State University | Winona | M.S. | April 30, 2034 | 7 |
Two more accredited programs don’t report graduates under the federal code used here, so they aren’t placed in the order: Minnesota State University Mankato (M.S. in Counseling and Student Personnel, Mankato, accredited through October 31, 2033) and the University of Minnesota (M.A., Minneapolis, accredited through October 31, 2032).
CACREP lists Capella University as Accredited (Reaffirmation in Process). It lists Minnesota State University Mankato, St. Cloud State University, Walden University, and Winona State University as Accredited (Progress Report Required).
Capella currently doesn’t accept applicants who live in Arkansas or Kentucky and plan to seek licensure in those states.
Minnesota rules now require school counseling programs based in the state to hold CACREP accreditation, or PELSB approval for a licensure track built on a CACREP-accredited program. Finishing a program still leaves PELSB’s own licensing requirements for you to meet.
State aid can pay for new counselor positions
Since 2023, Minnesota has paid a dedicated student support personnel aid that schools can use for counselors, school psychologists, school social workers, school nurses, and chemical dependency counselors. A school district receives at least $40,000 a year and a charter school at least $20,000, with larger schools paid by enrollment. The 2025 Legislature cut the allowance from a planned $48.73 to $30.05 per adjusted pupil unit for fiscal years 2026 and 2027. For you, that means some districts have state money set aside for exactly the kind of position you’d be applying for.
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 Minnesota requirements for school counselor certification before you enroll.
- Openings come mostly from turnover: Minnesota projects about 350 a year from 2024 to 2034.
- Caseloads are heavy: 541 students per counselor in 2023-24, more than double ASCA’s 250-to-1 recommendation.
- Pay sits near the national line: a $64,600 median in May 2025, against $64,330 nationally.
- One license covers every grade: a PELSB school counselor license now authorizes work from pre-K through grade 12.
- Seven CACREP-accredited programs are based in the state, running from Winona to Moorhead.
Before you pick a program, it helps to see the whole path, from graduate school and supervised fieldwork to your first PELSB license.
