Best School Psychology Programs in South Dakota Rankings for 2026

South Dakota runs school psychology through the Department of Education, not a psychology board. To work in South Dakota public schools you need a school psychologist certification, a school service specialist credential that authorizes you to serve students from infancy to age 21. Here is the path, step by step. First, complete a graduate school psychology program that meets NASP standards. At the specialist level that means at least 60 semester hours with a year-long internship of at least 1,200 hours, with a minimum of 600 of those hours in a school setting. Per the Administrative Rules of South Dakota, your program is the core of the credential.

Second, pass the Praxis School Psychologist exam (#5403). The qualifying score most states and the NCSP use is 155, and South Dakota ties its certification to a passing Praxis score, so confirm the current cut score with the certification office before you test. Third, apply to the Department of Education. Your university completes a sign-off form showing you met program requirements, you submit official transcripts, you clear a background check, and you pay the certification fee. Credentials run on a five-year cycle and renew with at least six credits of college coursework or professional development, including suicide awareness and prevention training.

There is also a lower-level credential, the school psychological examiner, which requires a master's degree and specific coursework but does not carry the full scope of the school psychologist certification. If your goal is to practice privately outside the school system, that is a different credential entirely, the Licensed Psychologist, issued by the South Dakota Board of Examiners of Psychologists. That license requires a doctoral degree, an 1,800-hour internship, a year of supervised postdoctoral practice, and passing the EPPP plus an oral exam. Most school psychologists in South Dakota hold the Department of Education certification and never need the psychologist license.

South Dakota pays school psychologists below the national median, and it is worth being straight about that. The BLS May 2025 data puts the South Dakota median at $78,370, against a national median of $95,990, a gap of about 18%. The state employs roughly 110 school psychologists, one of the smallest counts in the country, and the bottom 10% earn around $65,930 while the top 10% reach about $127,310. That top number tells you experienced school psychologists in the right district can do well, but the typical pay sits lower than in higher-cost states.

Two things soften the gap. First, South Dakota has no state income tax, so a $78,000 salary here takes home more than the same salary in a state that taxes wages, and the cost of living across most of South Dakota is well below the national average. Second, the BLS did not release any metro-level wage figures for South Dakota school psychologists, so there is no city-by-city breakdown to compare. The numbers you see are statewide. The one regional figure BLS does publish for the occupation is for the East South Dakota nonmetropolitan area, where the median runs about $74,860, a reminder that this is a largely rural workforce spread across small districts rather than big-city school systems. You can review the full state wage tables on the BLS South Dakota OEWS page.

South Dakota has one NASP-approved program, so choosing is less about ranking programs against each other and more about deciding whether to train in-state, look at a neighboring state, or go online. Here is how the options sort out.