Nevada School Counselor
Nevada school counselors work with students from pre-K through 12th grade. The state projects about 220 job openings a year from 2024 to 2034, and the May 2025 median wage is $66,710. You’ll generally need a master’s or higher degree and a Nevada educator license with a school counselor endorsement. Two CACREP-accredited Nevada programs offer the school counseling master’s.
Nevada Links
Most of Nevada’s school counseling jobs sit in one metro. Of the roughly 2,250 educational, guidance and career counselors and advisors BLS counted statewide in May 2025, about 1,610 worked in the Las Vegas area, while counselors in rural districts often cover a whole campus with little backup. Here’s what the work looks like in Nevada, where the openings are, what it pays and where you can earn the degree.
What School Counselors Do in Nevada
Take a student named Darius. He’s a junior at a high school in Clark County, and his grades have been sliding for most of the semester. His teachers flag it. His counselor pulls him in, and after a few conversations the picture gets clearer: Darius is working 30 hours a week to help cover rent. He hasn’t looked at colleges because he doesn’t think it’s realistic. Within two weeks, his counselor has connected him with a scholarship resource list, looped in his teachers on a modified homework schedule and set up a check-in routine that keeps him from slipping through.
That’s a snapshot of the job. The work spans academic planning, college and career readiness and social/emotional support, often in the same conversation. Nevada’s school counseling programs align with the ASCA National Model, which organizes counselor work around academic, career and social/emotional development.
In rural districts, the job looks different. A counselor in a small Elko County school might be the only mental health-adjacent professional on campus, which means broader reach and thinner backup. The schedule change, the college essay and the crisis call can all land in the same afternoon, with nobody down the hall to hand one off to.
Elementary counselors focus more on social skills, emotional regulation and spotting students who need extra support early. Middle and high school counselors shift toward course planning, credit tracking, college applications and crisis response. The blend changes by level, but the goal doesn’t: keeping students on track and connected.
Job Outlook in Nevada
Nevada projects about 220 school counselor openings a year from 2024 to 2034. The state’s projections add only about 180 jobs over that whole decade, so most of those annual openings come from replacing counselors who retire, move or leave the field. That’s why openings keep appearing even in a modest market.
Employment in the occupation is projected to grow about 7% in Nevada over that same 2024-2034 period. That’s roughly double the 3.5% projected for the occupation nationally in the same round of projections.
Where you look matters as much as when. The Las Vegas metro holds most of the state’s jobs in this broader BLS occupation, and Reno is a distant second at about 510 (May 2025). Outside those two metros the market is small: BLS estimates about 80 jobs in the occupation across rural Nevada and about 30 in Carson City.
School Counselor Salary in Nevada
The median salary for school counselors in Nevada was $66,710 in May 2025, about $2,400 above the national median of $64,330. BLS reports school counselors under a broader category, educational, guidance and career counselors and advisors, so these figures also include college advisors and career counselors.
| Percentile | Annual Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| 10th | $46,570 |
| 25th | $56,270 |
| Median (50th) | $66,710 |
| 75th | $86,640 |
| 90th | $94,530 |
Pay doesn’t swing much by region in Nevada. Las Vegas, Reno, Carson City and the rest of the state all land between about $66,000 and $70,000 at the median. The bigger gap is inside each market. In Las Vegas, the 10th percentile was $45,320 and the 90th was $105,070. BLS estimates only about 30 workers in this occupation in the Carson City metro, so the local figure represents a very small occupational market.
| Metro Area | Median Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV | $68,450 |
| Reno, NV | $66,210 |
| Balance of Nevada (nonmetro) | $69,520 |
| Carson City, NV | $69,690 |
CACREP-Accredited School Counseling Programs in Nevada
Two universities in Nevada offer a CACREP-accredited school counseling master’s. They’re listed by the number of master’s graduates each reported for 2023, which measures size, not quality.
| Institution | City | Degree | Accredited Through | Master’s Graduates (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Nevada, Las Vegas | Las Vegas | M.Ed. | October 31, 2030 | 28 |
| University of Nevada, Reno | Reno | M.A. | October 31, 2033 | 23 |
At UNR, applicants without previous K-12 teaching experience must document successful volunteer teaching or para-counseling experience in an elementary or secondary school setting before admission. If you’re coming from outside education, ask the program what counts before you apply.
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. CACREP accreditation is not the same as state approval: check the Nevada requirements for school counselor certification before you enroll.
Nevada wrote the school counselor’s job into law in 2019
Senate Bill 319, which took effect July 1, 2019, requires every Nevada school counselor to design and deliver a comprehensive school counseling program and to spend at least 80 percent of their time on direct or indirect services to students. That duty now sits in state law as NRS 391.293. A separate statute, NRS 388.055, currently requires each public school, charter schools included, to employ a full-time school counselor to the extent that money is available. The Legislature amended that staffing rule in 2025, and from July 1, 2030, it will depend on county size and school enrollment. For you, the 80 percent rule protects time for actual counseling, while staffing levels still depend on budgets.
- Steady openings: Nevada projects about 220 openings a year from 2024 to 2034, mostly to replace counselors who retire or leave.
- Pay above the national median: The Nevada median was $66,710 in May 2025, against $64,330 nationally, and the major metros sit in a similar range.
- Two accredited programs in state: UNLV and UNR both hold CACREP accreditation, through 2030 and 2033.
- Counseling time protected by law: NRS 391.293 requires counselors to spend at least 80% of their time on services to students.
- Graduate degree required: The usual route is a master’s degree in school counseling, and you’ll need a Nevada educator license with a school counselor endorsement.
Picked a program, or still comparing? The next step is knowing exactly what Nevada asks for before you apply.
