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South Dakota court guide

Anger Management in South Dakota: Court Services, Suspended Imposition and Your Class

Will a South Dakota court take an online class?

There is no state list for anger management in South Dakota. Our class is court-accepted in most jurisdictions, your judge, court services officer or prosecutor decides, and you get a full refund if they turn down the certificate.

In South Dakota, probation is run by the courts themselves. A court services officer from the Unified Judicial System watches your conditions, while parole belongs to the Department of Corrections. If a judge or a state's attorney put an anger class in your paperwork, here is who signs off on it and what to ask them.

A tidy waiting line marked by floor stickers in a bright, generic service office, with a few empty chairs and a counter.

South Dakota at a glance

Provider list
No state list. Court Services officers make referrals.
Typical length
8 hours for many first misdemeanors; 12 to 16 on a felony SIS.
Domestic violence
Court-ordered domestic abuse counseling. This class won’t satisfy it.
On this page

How South Dakota cases lead to an anger class

South Dakota does not have one statute that sends people to anger management. The class gets into your case through the broad power a judge has to set terms, or through a contract with the prosecutor. The common routes:

  • Suspended imposition of sentence (SIS). This is South Dakota's best-known second chance. Under SDCL 23A-27-13 (felonies) and 23A-27-12.2 (misdemeanors), a judge can accept your guilty plea, hold off on entering a judgment of guilt, and put you on probation "upon any terms and conditions as the court may deem best." An anger class is a frequent term after an assault, a threat or a fight. If you complete every condition, SDCL 23A-27-14 lets the court discharge and dismiss the case without an adjudication of guilt. That can happen only once in your life, so the class matters.
  • Suspended execution of sentence. Here the judge enters the sentence but suspends some or all of it on conditions under SDCL 23A-27-18. The class is one of those conditions, and missing it can bring back the jail days that were held over you.
  • Probation under Court Services. Court services officers are employees of the Unified Judicial System (UJS), the state court system. They supervise both adults and juveniles, write presentence reports and refer people to programs. UJS circuit pages list anger management among the issues their programs address.
  • State's attorney diversion. Several county prosecutors now run adult diversion. Pennington County calls itself diversion-first; Minnehaha County has offered adult diversion since 2021. You sign a contract, finish its tasks, and the charge is dropped. The contract decides whether an anger class is one of those tasks.
  • Parole. People released from prison are supervised by Department of Corrections parole agents under conditions set by the Board of Pardons and Paroles. That is a separate system from Court Services. Your parole agent, not a court, decides what counts.

Pull out your judgment, your probation agreement or your diversion contract and find the exact words. "Complete anger management" with no hours means you need to ask.

Sioux Falls, Rapid City and the magistrate courts

South Dakota has no city courts. When the state unified its courts in 1975, cases that used to go to municipal and justice courts moved into the circuit system. Today, misdemeanors and city ordinance violations are heard by magistrate judges inside each circuit, and felonies by circuit judges. Court Services covers both.

  • Sioux Falls (Second Judicial Circuit, Minnehaha and Lincoln counties). Court Services is on the second floor of the Minnehaha County Courthouse and supervises about 1,400 adults at a time, along with drug, DUI and veterans court participants. City code cases are prosecuted by the Sioux Falls City Attorney's office, but they are heard in the magistrate court, not a separate city court.
  • Rapid City (Seventh Judicial Circuit, Pennington, Custer, Fall River and Oglala Lakota counties). The Pennington County Court Services office is in Rapid City, with smaller offices in Custer and Hot Springs. State court officials have floated merging the administrative side of the Fourth and Seventh Circuits, so office details may change. Pennington County's State's Attorney runs adult, young adult and other diversion programs.
  • Smaller counties. In the rest of the state, one or two court services officers may cover several counties. They often know every local counselor by name, which shapes what they suggest.

The header on your paperwork tells you whether you are in "Magistrate Court" or "Circuit Court" and which county. Both lead to the same Court Services office.

Is there a South Dakota list of anger management providers?

We searched UJS, the Department of Corrections and the Legislature's code and rules and found no South Dakota list for anger management classes. No state agency reviews or approves them.

What exists instead is local habit. Court Services officers make referrals as part of their job, so many keep a short set of counselors or groups they trust. Diversion coordinators may hand out a resource sheet. Some circuits run their own programs for people on probation. If you are placed in one of those, an outside class will not take its place.

Good Standing Courses is not on any South Dakota court, Court Services, state's attorney or Department of Corrections list. Whether our certificate meets your term is up to the judge, your officer or the prosecutor who wrote your contract.

Not for domestic violence orders

South Dakota domestic abuse cases require domestic abuse counseling

South Dakota puts partner and household cases on their own track, and the law is short and direct. SDCL 25-10-5.1 says that when a court places someone on probation for a crime involving domestic abuse, it shall order domestic abuse counseling as a condition. Missing it is a probation violation in itself.

The statute says that counseling covers power and control, accountability, emotional regulation, or cognitive work on errors in thinking. The court may recommend individual or group counseling that meets those requirements. That is a counseling requirement with a clinical or program provider, not a self-study class.

If the other person in your case is a spouse, ex, dating partner or someone you live with, read your order closely before you choose anything. Good Standing Courses is not a Batterer Intervention Program or a substitute for one, and our class is not domestic abuse counseling. An online anger class will not satisfy SDCL 25-10-5.1.

Will a South Dakota court accept an online anger management class?

We found no South Dakota statute, Supreme Court rule or UJS policy that bans online anger classes or limits them to certain providers. The SIS statutes leave terms to the judge, and Court Services officers verify that people finish what the court ordered. So the real answer sits with the judge, your court services officer, your parole agent or your diversion coordinator.

In practice in South Dakota:

  • Distance is a fair point to raise. In a state where the nearest group can be hours away, it is reasonable to ask whether remote work is allowed. Ask; don't assume.
  • Higher-risk supervision is stricter. People on intensive probation or in a problem-solving court often must use the program the team picks.
  • Diversion is a contract. If it names a provider, use that provider. If it only says "anger management," get the coordinator's yes in writing first.
  • Domestic abuse cases are closed. Anything under SDCL 25-10-5.1 needs real domestic abuse counseling.

Things that make it easier for a South Dakota officer to say yes:

  • The certificate lists the same hours as your order.
  • It shows a start date and a finish date, so the officer sees steady work.
  • The officer can confirm it on a verification page without calling us.
  • You asked before enrolling and kept their reply as a text or email.

How long South Dakota anger classes usually are

No South Dakota law sets hours for anger management. The number comes from your judgment, your probation agreement, your diversion contract or your officer.

  • 8 hours: a figure we often see for a first misdemeanor or a diversion contract. Low-medium confidence.
  • 12 to 16 hours: more typical when a circuit judge orders a class on a felony SIS. Low confidence.
  • Weekly counseling over months: that is domestic abuse counseling or a treatment track, not an anger class.

If nothing on your paper gives a number, ask your officer before you start, not after you finish.

Choose your hours

Paperwork says "impulse control" or "decision making"? That's our Impulse Control & Decision Making class.

Enrollment is currently closed.

Court-accepted in most jurisdictions. Educational course, not therapy. Acceptance is decided by your court or officer. See a sample certificate

Ask your officer first

What to ask your South Dakota court services officer before you start

  1. "Is my case a suspended imposition, a suspended execution, or regular probation, and does the anger class have to be done before discharge?"
  2. "Does my order or diversion contract name a provider, or can I pick a self-paced online class?"
  3. "How many hours, and what is the deadline?"
  4. "Is my case treated as domestic abuse? If so, do I need domestic abuse counseling instead?"
  5. "Who files the certificate: you, the state's attorney's office or the clerk of courts?"

Your officer can read our page for probation officers and check your certificate at /verify.

South Dakota: questions and answers

Is there a court approved anger management list in South Dakota?

There is no state list for anger management in South Dakota. No state agency reviews these classes. Our class is court-accepted in most jurisdictions, your judge, court services officer or prosecutor decides, and you get a full refund if they turn down the certificate.

Will a South Dakota court accept an online anger management class?

There is no statewide rule either way. The judge, your court services officer, your parole agent or your diversion coordinator makes the call. Ask first and save their answer.

I got a suspended imposition of sentence. Does the class affect my dismissal?

Yes. Under SDCL 23A-27-14 the case is discharged and dismissed only after you meet all the conditions. An unfinished class can hold that up, and a dismissal can happen only once.

My case is in Sioux Falls city court. Who decides?

South Dakota has no city courts. Sioux Falls ordinance cases are heard by a magistrate judge in the Second Circuit, and Court Services or the City Attorney's office tracks the terms.

I'm on parole, not probation. Does this page apply?

Partly. Parole is run by the Department of Corrections, and your parole agent decides which programs count, not Court Services.

My case involves my partner. Can I take this class?

Not instead of what the law requires. SDCL 25-10-5.1 calls for domestic abuse counseling when you are on probation for a domestic abuse crime. Our class does not replace it.

My Rapid City diversion contract says 8 hours. Which class fits?

The 8-hour anger management class, after the Pennington County diversion staff confirm online is fine.

Guides for other states