State requirements / South Dakota
South Dakota parenting class requirement
Both parties, 60 days, and no decree until it is filed
South Dakota requires the parties to any action involving child custody or parenting time to complete a court-approved course within 60 days of service. No final decree is entered until both parties have complied. Only providers on the Unified Judicial System list count, and our listing request is prepared.
The requirement at a glance
| Who must attend | The parties to any action involving child custody or parenting time. Not required in a protection order proceeding, and not required where the proceeding involves terminating a party's parental rights. |
| Hours required | No minimum set by rule; ours runs 4 hours |
| Deadline | Within 60 days of service of the summons and complaint, petition, or motion. The clock runs from service, not from filing. A judge may waive or delay it for good cause, which includes a default or a court-approved course taken in the past five years. |
| Authority | SDCL 25-4A-32 |
| Fees and waivers | Each party arranges and pays for their own course. There is no cap and no sliding-scale mandate, and the Unified Judicial System states that neither the clerk nor the court can waive the fee. Our scholarship fund exists precisely because the court cannot help here. |
| Our price | $25 for one parent, $50 for both parents on the same case. Scholarship seats are funded by donors, so no parent is turned away for money. |
| Our registry status | Provider application prepared and in progress. We will claim approval only when the approval document is in our hands. |
What the law actually says
“A final decree shall not be granted or a final order shall not be entered until both parties have complied with this requirement”
SDCL 25-4A-32Quoted from the official text. Read it yourself at the source below.The part nobody explains
Filing your certificate
Each party files their own certificate of completion with the clerk of courts in the county where the case is pending, before the decree or order. Nobody files it for you.
If the deadline passes
The case stops. No final decree is granted and no final order is entered until both parties have complied, unless a judge waives or delays it for good cause. There is no contempt provision here, because none is needed.
Who approves providers in South Dakota
The State Court Administrator's Office certifies approved courses, and its list is the only one that counts. The Unified Judicial System says so plainly: providers outside the list claim to be court approved, and the court does not accept their certificates. Virtual, Zoom, and self-paced online providers do appear on the list, so online delivery is accepted in practice. Our listing request is prepared.
What you get from us
- The full course, start to finish, on a phone or a laptop, with your progress saved. Lifetime access, no thirty-day expiry and no extension fees.
- Your certificate the moment you finish, by email, free. A mailed paper copy is optional.
- Free instant verification for your court. A clerk or judge confirms the certificate at our verification page with no account and no phone call.
- Our acceptance guarantee: if your specific court declines this certificate, you get a full refund, no processing fee and no deadline to claim it.
Check us on the law
Every fact on this page traces to an official source. Read them yourself.