Board overview

South Dakota Board of Education Standards

Who sets statewide standards, what has changed, and what remains proposed.

Each of these water troughs serves two pastures at the Jennings Ranch co-owner Eric Jennings, has a 50 head cow-calf operation in Spearfish, SD, on July 22, 2021. In 1989, Eric and Michelle Jennings bought 300 gravelly acres of pasture and a 100-acre field. Then, the operation had more cows, so it was important to have affordable hay to feed them, but even with irrigation from Spearfish Creek, the field was a low-producer of hay. Over the years, the 100-acre field produced a low 0-600 bales per — USDAgov · public-domain

A seven-member board sets standards and approves educator preparation

State policy board attached to the Department of Education

The Board sets elementary and secondary content standards and oversees school accreditation and educator-preparation and certification requirements. Seven members are appointed by the Governor with Senate advice and consent. Local districts make curriculum and operating choices within applicable state requirements. The reviewed records do not identify a separate Board operating appropriation, detailed spending or comparable per-pupil figure.

Appointments, not a direct public election

Members serve four-year terms ending December 31. The official directory lists seven members; the next listed term expiry is Steve Perkins’s on December 31, 2026. An expiry date does not establish an announced appointment or confirmation date.

Public standards review

The Board hears proposals and public input before decisions. May 4 minutes record approval of revised math and health standards. September CTE, library and world-language materials do not by themselves establish final adoption.

State and local responsibilities

The Board is attached to the Department of Education. Its standards and approval roles do not mean it runs every local school or selects every classroom lesson. Statewide program descriptions and grant references do not establish the Board’s own budget.

Spending data remain incomplete

No separate operating appropriation, spending breakdown or per-student cost for the Board was established in the reviewed official records. These are unknown amounts, rather than zero spending.

Governance and spending

Governor-appointed Board seatsverified

7 seats

Appointments require Senate advice and consent.

Member termverified

4 years

Terms expire December 31; individual appointment dates vary.

Separate Board operating spendingcontext

Not established USD

No comparable appropriation or per-pupil amount was established.

Major projects

Math and health standards revision

Board approval recorded May 4; implementation dates unverified

The reviewed proposals update grade and course expectations while preserving local curriculum choices. May 4 minutes record unanimous approval after the final hearing. Archived proposals and change summaries represent different versions, and marked-up text includes deletions and renumbering; a clean operative final file and implementation dates remain unverified.

Next: Confirm the operative final standards files and implementation guidance; no verified deadline was identified.

Feb 23, 2026Third hearing; Board asked a working committee to propose fourth-year math standards.
May 4, 2026Fourth and final hearing; health and math standards approved.
Jun 22, 2026Board approved the May 4 minutes.

Funding

No project-specific appropriation or implementation budget was identified.

Career and technical education standards revision

Proposed materials; final Board adoption unverified

The proposed revision covers 15 career clusters, middle-school exploration, foundational courses and capstone experiences. It recommends new offerings including introductory AI, behavioral and mental health, and fire science. Proposed course codes conflict in places and are not normalized here.

Next: Find later hearing and Board decision records. The process report anticipates public hearings in the 2026–27 school year; no final decision date was verified.

Sep 28, 2026Agenda schedules a first standards hearing; the collected proposal and presentation describe the planned revision.

Funding

No project-specific appropriation was established in these materials.

Recent news

The review reconciles115 stored source listings representing112 unique byte-level objects:110 readable documents fully reviewed, two audio recordings whose contents remain unreviewed, and three duplicate listings. The corpus includes the trailing-year meetings from October 24, 2025 through October 24, 2026; older policy/program sources retained as context; the October 24, 2025 report-card release; and two documents linked for November 2, 2026. The recovered November 2025 archive adds approved minutes, proposals, public comments, program and report-card materials. Reports distinguish proposals, public views, draft versions and recorded votes.

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