2025 Best Special Education Schools in South Dakota
4Colleges in South Dakota
141Special Ed Degrees Awarded
$52,862Avg Early-Career Salary
Special Education is of the hottest degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #29 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 4 schools in South Dakota to determine which ones were the best for special education students pursuing a degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 141 degrees in special education annually.
Your choice of special education school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. For our Best Overall Special Education School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Special Education Schools in South Dakota ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Special Education in South Dakota
The schools below may not offer all types of special ed degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer.
It is hard to beat Augustana University if you wish to pursue a degree in special education. Located in the city of Sioux Falls, Augustana Sioux Falls is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 9th out of 13 schools for overall quality in the state of South Dakota.
There were approximately 44 special education students who graduated with this degree at Augustana Sioux Falls in the most recent data year.
University of South Dakota is a wonderful option for students pursuing a degree in special education. Located in the town of Vermillion, USD is a public university with a medium-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #601 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means USD is a great university overall.
There were approximately 35 special education students who graduated with this degree at USD in the most recent data year. Soon after graduating, special ed degree recipients generally make around $46,439 at the beginning of their careers.
Any student pursuing a degree in special education has to take a look at Northern State University. NSU is a small public university located in the town of Aberdeen. This university ranks 10th out of 13 schools for overall quality in the state of South Dakota.
There were roughly 19 special education students who graduated with this degree at NSU in the most recent year we have data available.
Dakota State University is a good option for students interested in a degree in special education. Dakota State is a small public university located in the distant town of Madison. A Best Colleges rank of #542 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Dakota State is a great university overall.
There were about 22 special education students who graduated with this degree at Dakota State in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the special ed program state that they receive average early career wages of $42,318.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).