South Dakota School Counselor
South Dakota school counselors work with students from pre-K through 12th grade. The state projects about 80 job openings a year from 2024 to 2034, and the May 2025 median wage is $51,830. You’ll need a master’s in counseling and a School Counselor Education Specialist Certificate from the state Department of Education. South Dakota State and Northern State offer CACREP-accredited programs.
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A high school counselor in Sioux Falls and an elementary counselor in a small rural district hold the same certificate. Their days look very different. South Dakota’s mix of city districts, rural schools, and tribal and Bureau of Indian Education schools shapes the job everywhere, so here’s what the work involves, what the market looks like, and what it pays.
What School Counselors Do in South Dakota
The South Dakota Department of Education publishes the South Dakota Comprehensive School Counseling Program Model to guide school counseling program development. The current 5th edition, released in December 2023, adapts the ASCA National Model and recommends one counselor for every 250 students. It describes a planned program that reaches every student, academically, socially, and in career planning, rather than an office that only opens for a crisis.
Consider a hypothetical week for Ms. Larson, a high school counselor in Sioux Falls. On Monday, she meets with Caleb, a junior working 25 hours a week whose grades are slipping. They map out a realistic senior-year course load, and she points him to a scholarship he didn’t know existed. By Wednesday, she’s teaching a post-graduation planning lesson to sophomores. On Friday she’s on the phone with a family and three teachers after a mental health concern was flagged. Academic planning, career development and social-emotional support, often all in the same week. That’s the job.
Elementary counselors do the same work at a different scale. A counselor at a school in Aberdeen might run a small social skills group, check in with a student whose home situation just changed, and help a teacher figure out why one child melts down every time the class switches activities. The balance shifts by grade level, but the core stays the same: meet students where they are and help them move forward.
Counselors in tribal and Bureau of Indian Education schools often build deep expertise in culturally responsive practice. Mental health support and crisis prevention take a real share of the week in every setting. In smaller districts, one counselor can end up covering every grade level, making the 250-student guideline a goal rather than a given.
South Dakota law (SDCL 13-10-17) requires every school counselor a district employs to be certified, and the Department of Education issues the credential: the School Counselor Education Specialist Certificate. You can qualify through an approved preschool-to-grade-12 school counselor program, or through a master’s in counseling plus the state-designated school counselor test and a year of supervision by a mentor school counselor. Since July 1, 2025, educators new to the profession or coming from another state also need a three-credit South Dakota Indian studies course (SDCL 13-1-48). Our certification guide covers each requirement.
Job Outlook in South Dakota
South Dakota projects about 80 openings a year for school and career counselors from 2024 to 2034, according to Projections Central. Employment is projected to grow 7.6% over that period, compared with 3.5% for the occupation nationally in the same projection round. That growth adds only about 70 jobs over the decade. Most openings will come from counselors who retire or leave the field.
Eighty openings a year is modest, which is what you’d expect in a state this size. Where those jobs sit matters too. BLS estimated roughly 1,000 school and career counselors and advisors working in South Dakota in May 2025, with about 610 of them in the state’s two nonmetropolitan areas. That’s more than in the Sioux Falls and Rapid City metro areas combined. These are BLS area estimates, not district counts, but if you’re open to a smaller district, you’ll see more of the market.
School Counselor Salary in South Dakota
The May 2025 median wage for school and career counselors in South Dakota is $51,830. That’s about $12,500 below the national median of $64,330. BLS reports these figures under Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors, a category that also includes college and career advisors.
Some South Dakota districts place school counselors on teacher salary schedules. Sioux Falls School District, for example, ties its 2026-27 counselor postings to its teacher salary schedule, and one high school counselor posting adds 10 extra paid days.
| Percentile | Annual Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| 10th | $41,560 |
| 25th | $46,550 |
| Median (50th) | $51,830 |
| 75th | $60,080 |
| 90th | $65,990 |
Of the four BLS areas below, Rapid City has the highest median, at $56,040. Sioux Falls, the largest metro, comes in slightly below the statewide figure.
| Metro Area | Median Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| Rapid City, SD | $56,040 |
| East South Dakota nonmetropolitan area | $52,250 |
| Sioux Falls, SD-MN | $51,060 |
| West South Dakota nonmetropolitan area | $50,740 |
Salary data from BLS OEWS, May 2025. Sioux Falls figures cover the full Sioux Falls, SD-MN metro area. Metro estimates may vary due to sample size and reporting differences.
CACREP-Accredited School Counseling Programs in South Dakota
The table below lists two CACREP-accredited school counseling master’s programs in South Dakota, ordered by the number of master’s graduates each reported for 2023. That order reflects size, not quality.
| Institution | City | Degree | Accredited Through | Master’s Graduates (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Dakota State University | Brookings | M.S. | October 31, 2033 | 6 |
| Northern State University | Aberdeen | M.S.Ed. | April 30, 2034 | 2 |
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 South Dakota requirements for school counselor certification before you enroll.
South Dakota put state money into youth suicide prevention in 2023
In 2023 the Legislature passed House Bill 1079, appropriating $2 million from the state general fund to the Department of Health for grants to youth and young adult programs. The grants covered three areas: mental health and suicide prevention peer support training, prevention data services, and suicide loss response planning. These initiatives are relevant to the mental health and suicide prevention work that school counselors may encounter.
- Steady openings: South Dakota projects about 80 school and career counselor openings a year from 2024 to 2034, most of them replacing counselors who leave.
- State guidance shapes the work: The Department of Education’s Comprehensive School Counseling Program Model, 5th edition, recommends one counselor per 250 students.
- New certification requirement: Since July 1, 2025, educators new to the profession or from out of state need a three-credit South Dakota Indian studies course.
- Pay trails the national median: The May 2025 state median is $51,830, about $12,500 below the national figure, and Rapid City has the highest median of the four BLS areas at $56,040.
- Programs to compare: South Dakota State University and Northern State University both offer CACREP-accredited master’s degrees in school counseling.
Two routes lead to a South Dakota school counselor certificate, and the right one depends on your degree or the one you plan to earn. See how each one works, step by step.
