School districts in South Dakota
South Dakota ranks 9th among the states for how often the mail and the schools disagree: 73% of its 375 populated ZIP Code areas are served by more than one school district, against 53% across the country. The worst of them is 57363, where 7 districts each hold a real share of the homes and Mount Vernon School District 17-3 leads with the largest. In 3 of them the answer for grade school is not the answer for high school. The two districts that share the most ZIP Codes here are Viborg Hurley School District 60-6 and Irene-Wakonda School District 13-3, in 5 of them.
How many school districts are in South Dakota?
147: the Census boundary file draws 147 school districts in South Dakota that reach at least one ZIP Code area with homes, 147 unified, 0 elementary and 0 secondary. A ZIP Code here can sit in more than one of them, which is why a school district lookup by ZIP Code for South Dakota lists them all: find your school district by ZIP code.
Seven ZIP Codes in ten here cross a district line
The state sits well above the national rate: 73% of its ZIP Code areas cross a district line against 53% across the country. With 147 districts over 375 populated ZIP Code areas, every extra district is another line to cross.
- ZIP Code areas with a district375
- Served by more than one district273 (73%)
- Grade school and high school differ3 (0.8%)
- No high school district named2
- Unified districts147
- Elementary districts0
- Secondary districts0
- Homes in no district at all0
District pages for South Dakota, largest first
Ranked by the homes inside their boundaries: Sioux Falls School District 49-5 leads at 70,572, then Rapid City School District 51-4 at 43,913 and Harrisburg School District 41-2 at 13,210. Only districts with a page here are listed; 142 more in the state have none.
The most divided ZIP Code area in South Dakota
ZIP Code area 57363 holds 438 homes and 7 districts take a real share of them for the early grades, but Mount Vernon School District 17-3 holds 90% on its own at that level. This is the shape that makes a single-name lookup look right: it names Mount Vernon School District 17-3 and describes most of the homes here, and silently not the rest.
Each percentage here is a share of the 438 homes counted in ZIP Code 57363, not the chance that any one address is in that district. Enrollment follows the street: two houses on opposite sides of the same road can be in different districts, and only the district office can say which.
Every track below is 35 cells long and stands for all 438 homes counted in ZIP Code 57363, so one cell is 13 homes, rounded to the nearest whole cell. Cells lit solid are the homes one district holds, and the unlit cells are the homes held by the other districts in the same list.
- Mount Vernon School District 17-3393 of 438 homes90%
- Ethan School District 17-114 of 438 homes3.2%
- Corsica-Stickney School District 21-311 of 438 homes2.5%
- Mitchell School District 17-26 of 438 homes1.4%
- Woonsocket School District 55-45 of 438 homes1.1%
- Plankinton School District 01-14 of 438 homes0.9%
- Sanborn Central School District 55-54 of 438 homes0.9%
One further district reaches into this area and holds 1 home in it, under half a percent of the homes named at this level.
For grade school, an answer of one district name would be wrong for 45 of the 438 here.
Where a single district name still works in South Dakota
Across the 375 ZIP Code areas in South Dakota with homes in them, an answer of one district name misses 26,107 of the 392,907 homes they hold. That is 6.6% of the state, and in 80 of the areas the largest district for the early grades holds every home counted: this is a state where the familiar answer is usually the right one, and the areas below are where it is not.
In ZIP Code 57108 · Sioux Falls, South Dakota the largest district for grade school is Harrisburg School District 41-2, and naming it alone misses 3,989 of the 13,884 homes counted there. For grade school the rest is 3,989 homes with Sioux Falls School District 49-5 and Canton School District 41-1.
In ZIP Code 57110 · Sioux Falls, South Dakota the largest district for grade school is Sioux Falls School District 49-5, and naming it alone misses 2,515 of the 9,028 homes counted there. For grade school the rest is 2,515 homes with Brandon Valley School District 49-2.
ZIP Code 57106 · Sioux Falls, South Dakota names 4 districts. Sioux Falls School District 49-5 is the largest of them for grade school, and an answer of its name alone misses 1,455 of the 20,314 homes there; for grade school the rest is 1,405 homes with Tea Area School District 41-5, Harrisburg School District 41-2 and Lennox School District 41-4; 50 homes in a district too small to name here.
Where a ZIP Code here names more than one district
Of the 375 ZIP Code areas in South Dakota that the federal file names a district for, 273 name more than one school district. These are the 12 with the most, starting at 7 districts in one postal area: Mount Vernon, Colman and Garretson. Each row opens the full answer for that ZIP Code, with every district named for grade school and for high school and the share of the homes each one holds.
- ZIP Code 57363 · Mount Vernon, South Dakota7 districts · 438 homes
- ZIP Code 57017 · Colman, South Dakota6 districts · 540 homes
- ZIP Code 57030 · Garretson, South Dakota6 districts · 1,168 homes
- ZIP Code 57053 · Parker, South Dakota6 districts · 852 homes
- ZIP Code 57322 · Shamrock Colony, South Dakota6 districts · 108 homes
- ZIP Code 57014 · Centerville, South Dakota5 districts · 689 homes
- ZIP Code 57055 · Renner Corner, South Dakota5 districts · 474 homes
- ZIP Code 57212 · Arlington, South Dakota5 districts · 1,118 homes
- ZIP Code 57313 · Armour, South Dakota5 districts · 558 homes
- ZIP Code 57359 · Letcher, South Dakota5 districts · 307 homes
- ZIP Code 57638 · Lemmon, South Dakota5 districts · 1,134 homes
- ZIP Code 57003 · Baltic, South Dakota4 districts · 811 homes
What to do next
Ask the district office to confirm your street address: look on its site for a school locator, a find my school tool or an attendance zone map, or call the office.
A ZIP Code is a set of mail delivery routes, not a boundary: 273 of the 375 ZIP Code areas in South Dakota with a district named for them are served by more than one school district, and the line between two of them runs along streets. Only the district can say which side of that line an address is on.
District websites and phone numbers here come from the NCES Common Core of Data directory, 2024-25 school year, filed under the same district ID as the Census boundary files. Where it lists no usable website, none is printed rather than guessed.
If a house purchase depends on the answer, ask the district itself for written confirmation of that exact address. A listing is not a district record, and neither is this page.
Where these numbers come from
The homes were counted in the 2020 Census and the district lines are the 2026 boundary file, so a fast-growing area may have changed since; ZIP Codes here are the Census Bureau's ZIP Code Tabulation Areas; a share is a share of homes, not the chance that one address is in a district; and a district is not a school attendance zone. Every source, file and caveat is on the method page.