New Jersey School Counselor
New Jersey’s median wage for school and career counselors was $77,910 in May 2025, about $13,580 above the national median. The state projects about 720 openings a year from 2024 to 2034. You’ll need a master’s or higher and a standard educational services certificate with a school counselor endorsement. One route is a CACREP-accredited program, and New Jersey has nine.
New Jersey Links
New Jersey has 590 operating school districts and 2,506 public schools (NJDOE, 2024-25). Here’s what the job looks like in the state, what it pays and where you can train.
What School Counselors Do in New Jersey
A student in a Trenton middle school is falling behind in math and pulling away from friends. Her teacher flags the pattern, and it lands on the school counselor’s desk. The counselor meets with the student, connects with her parents, and discovers a stressor at home that’s been affecting her sleep and focus. Within a week, there’s a plan: adjusted homework expectations, a check-in schedule with the counselor, and a referral to the school’s social worker. That’s what this job looks like in practice.
New Jersey school counselors work across all grade levels (elementary, middle, and high school), and their responsibilities shift depending on the setting. At the elementary level, the work centers on social-emotional development: helping young students build communication skills, navigate peer conflict, and develop habits that support learning. At the middle school level, counselors support the transition into adolescence and start introducing students to academic planning. High school counselors take on more of the college and career piece, guiding students through applications, exploring post-secondary options, and helping seniors who are the first in their families to apply to college.
The day-to-day isn’t just student-facing. Counselors consult with teachers, coordinate with administrators, and connect families to outside resources. Caseloads are a real factor. New Jersey’s statewide ratio was about 290 students per school counselor in 2024-25, according to ASCA’s analysis of federal data. That’s better than the national figure of 372 but still above ASCA’s recommended 250. Individual caseloads vary a lot from district to district. The work is rewarding, and it’s demanding.
The ASCA National Model provides a framework for designing school counseling programs that cover academic, career and social-emotional development.
Job Outlook in New Jersey
New Jersey projects about 720 job openings a year for school and career counselors from 2024 to 2034. Most of those openings come from counselors retiring or leaving the field rather than from new positions. Employment is projected to grow 7.1% over that decade, about double the 3.5% projected nationally for the same period.
With 590 districts in the state, openings aren’t concentrated in a handful of large systems. They come up everywhere from big urban districts to small single-town ones, which gives you real geographic flexibility. For a broader picture of how much school counselors make across the country, the national data offers useful context.
School Counselor Salary in New Jersey
New Jersey school counselors earn a median of $77,910 a year (May 2025), about $13,580 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. About 8,190 people work in that category in New Jersey.
Public school pay here follows salary guides that each district negotiates with its local education association. Those guides set pay by years of experience and degree level. A new counselor usually starts on a lower step than the median and moves up over time.
| Percentile | Annual Salary |
|---|---|
| 10th | $57,850 |
| 25th | $64,160 |
| Median (50th) | $77,910 |
| 75th | $98,490 |
| 90th | $108,500 |
| Metro Area | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $77,580 |
| Trenton-Princeton, NJ | $77,320 |
| Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ | $75,920 |
| Vineland, NJ | $67,620 |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | $66,190 |
| Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ | $63,590 |
Salaries in the northern part of the state and around Trenton-Princeton sit close to the state median. The Vineland, Philadelphia-area and Lehigh Valley metros have lower median wages in this occupation. The New York, Philadelphia and Allentown figures cover each full multistate metro, not just its New Jersey counties.
CACREP-Accredited School Counseling Programs in New Jersey
New Jersey offers three routes to the school counselor endorsement (code 2702) on a standard educational services certificate:
- A master’s or higher from a CACREP-accredited school counseling program
- An NJDOE-approved graduate program in school counseling
- A master’s or higher plus at least 48 graduate credits of specified coursework, including a supervised practicum in a pre-K-12 school
Nine CACREP-accredited school counseling programs operate in the state. The table lists eight of them by the number of master’s graduates each university reported for 2023, which measures size, not quality.
| Institution | City | Degree | Accredited Through | Master’s Graduates (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montclair State University | Montclair | M.A. | October 31, 2033 | 104 |
| The College of New Jersey | Ewing | M.A. | October 31, 2030 | 71 |
| Kean University | Union | M.A. | March 31, 2030 | 67 |
| Rowan University | Glassboro | M.A. | October 31, 2027 | 25 |
| Monmouth University | West Long Branch | M.S.Ed. | October 31, 2033 | 21 |
| William Paterson University | Wayne | M.Ed. | March 31, 2027 | 21 |
| Rider University | Lawrenceville | M.A. | March 31, 2031 | 12 |
| Rutgers University | New Brunswick | M.Ed. | October 31, 2034 | 6 |
Caldwell University in Caldwell is also CACREP-accredited, through October 31, 2029. It does not report graduates under the federal code used here, so it is listed separately rather than placed in the size order.
Three programs carry a qualified CACREP status. Montclair State University is Accredited (Progress Report Required). Rowan University is Accredited (Reaffirmation in Process), and its current accreditation cycle ends October 31, 2027. William Paterson University is Accredited (Reaffirmation in Process), and its current accreditation cycle ends March 31, 2027.
New public school hires generally have to live in New Jersey
Since 2011, the New Jersey First Act (N.J.S.A. 52:14-7) has generally required new school district hires to make New Jersey their principal residence. A new hire has one year from starting the job to establish it. A five-member state committee can grant exemptions for critical need or hardship. If you live in New York or Pennsylvania, factor this in before you accept an offer.
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 New Jersey requirements for school counselor certification before you enroll.
- Above-average pay: New Jersey’s May 2025 median of $77,910 is about 21% above the national median of $64,330.
- Steady openings: The state projects about 720 openings a year from 2024 to 2034, with 7.1% employment growth over that period.
- Nine CACREP-accredited programs: Completing one is one of three routes to New Jersey’s school counselor endorsement.
- A residency rule to plan around: New public school hires generally must live in New Jersey within a year of starting. Exemptions exist.
Nine CACREP-accredited programs are a good place to start, though they aren’t the only route. Before you compare them, see what New Jersey’s standard educational services certificate with a school counselor endorsement requires. You’ll also see how long the path usually takes.
