LMFT Licensure in South Dakota: Requirements, Hours and Exams

South Dakota issues one MFT license and nothing licensed below it.

A graduate who needs post-degree hours applies for a board approved post graduate plan of supervision, and the rule defines that person as a supervisee — an applicant acquiring the necessary post graduate supervision hours under the approved plan — not a licensee of any kind.

Timing is the trap: the plan must be board-approved before any supervision experience starts counting toward licensure, it is valid for two years from issuance and may be renewed one time, with the renewal application due at least 30 days before expiration.

A separate plan application is required for each proposed supervisor, and the board may grant an extension for extenuating circumstances or undue hardship.

The only other instrument below the license is a temporary license for out-of-state endorsement applicants, which expires automatically after ninety days or upon passage of the national examination.

The degree is a master's or doctorate of at least 48 credit hours in marriage and family therapy from an accredited MFT program recognized by the board, or an equivalent course of study the board approves; COAMFTE is not named in the statute.

The rule supplies the structure: the institution must hold accreditation from one of six regional accreditors, and an approved program is one accredited by COAMFTE, one with CACREP specialty training in marriage and family counseling or therapy, or an organized sequence of study covering marriage and family studies, therapy, human development, professional studies and research, with a practicum of one year minimum at 15 hours per week and at least 300 client contact hours.

ARSD 20:71:02:12 is the makeup rule for a degree missing an element: fewer than 48 credits, the missing supervised professional practicum, or missing prescribed coursework may be completed post degree, capped at 12 semester credits counted only toward the academic requirements of the organized-sequence route (20:71:02:11(3)), and verified before a post graduate plan of supervision will issue.

Plan around two facts: the 1,700 hours must fall within the four-year period preceding the application, and every one of them comes after the degree.

Within the total, the rule requires at least 1,600 hours of direct client contact — no more than 1,000 acquired through counseling provided by electronic means, the rest in person — and at least 100 hours of supervision with a board approved supervisor, at least one supervision hour per 20 direct client contact hours, with no more than 50 of the 100 in group supervision.

Supervision must include at least five hours each of case presentation and staffing, direct observation through in-person or recorded sessions, co-counseling, and review of supervisee recordkeeping.

Also: up to 100 hours of the supervisee's own personal counseling or therapy count as direct client contact, and a contact hour is at least 50 minutes, accumulated in 15- or 20-minute increments.

The rules state no separate couples-and-families hour figure and no minimum duration, and the board may grant a license past the four-year limit for good cause.

The rule names the examination outright: the Association of Marital and Family Therapy Regulatory Board's National Examination in Marital and Family Therapy is required for licensure as a marriage and family therapist, and the board may accept an examination it deems equivalent.

The statute states the same requirement in general terms, a standardized national examination approved by the board.

The license application includes verification of a passing score alongside the documentation of the 1,700 hours.

The exam rule was last amended effective November 24, 2022, and the research found no 2023–2026 change.

It also matters after licensure: reinstating an expired license requires verification of a passing score earned after the date the original license expired.

A supervisor must be licensed as a professional counselor-mental health (LPC-MH) or as a marriage and family therapist, in good standing, and qualify by: actively licensed at least two years with at least four hours of supervision-focused continuing education in the two years before the application; actively licensed at least one year with at least 15 such hours; or holding American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy approved clinical supervisor status.

Choosing one is a scheduling decision, not just a clinical one — supervisor approval runs to November 30 of the next even-numbered year, renews on four hours of supervision-focused CE, and if the supervisor fails to renew, the approval and every post graduate plan authorized with that supervisor automatically expire.

Only hours acquired with a board approved supervisor under an approved plan are compliant, recorded on a form the board provides.

Supervision is individual (one supervisor with up to two supervisees) or group (three or more); a supervisee may have multiple supervisors under separate plan applications, and supervision by electronic means must be synchronous.

SDCL 36-33-45 is the route for a clinician already licensed elsewhere: the board may license an applicant licensed as an MFT in another state or territory who shows licensure under the other jurisdiction's authority for at least three years before applying, good standing, active practice during the three-year period, a pass on a standard national examination approved by the board, and no record of unprofessional conduct or pending disciplinary complaints.

Active practice is a defined term — at least 1,500 hours of clinical experience.

An endorsement applicant may first hold a temporary license, which expires automatically ninety days after issuance or upon passing the National Examination and may be renewed one time, useful while the exam is in progress.

No MFT interstate compact existed as of September 2026, so endorsement is the route; match your state's hour record against South Dakota's 1,700-hour structure before you apply.

A license runs to November 30 of the next even-numbered year following issuance.

Missing that date is not a quiet grace period: failure to renew on or before November 30 of an even-numbered year automatically suspends the license, and a licensee has thirty days after the expiration date to submit the renewal application and proof of CE compliance.

Each continuing education cycle is two years, December 1 of an even-numbered year through November 30 of the next, and requires 40 hours of qualified continuing education, at least four of them on marriage and family ethics.

CE is prorated in six-month increments for a licensee granted an initial license mid-cycle, completion records must be kept four years, and no qualified continuing education may be repeated in consecutive cycles.

Electronic practice has its own chapter: marriage and family therapy through electronic means must adhere to the article, HIPAA regulations and the article's ethical requirements — the chapter the rule invokes when it caps electronic direct client contact at 1,000 of the 1,600 hours.

Personal therapy counts too: up to 100 hours of the supervisee's own counseling or therapy, received from a professional counselor, professional counselor-mental health, certified social worker-private independent practice, psychologist, or psychiatrist — never the supervisee's own approved supervisor — may count as direct client contact, subject to verification by the board.

The board may also recognize direct client contact hours acquired under supervision approved and overseen by another South Dakota licensing board, if the hours meet the statutory definition of the practice of marriage and family therapy and are documented as the chapter prescribes.

Every licensee, supervisee and supervisor must comply with the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Code of Ethics as of January 1, 2015.