South Dakota veteran benefits
- Verified veteran benefits
- 23
- each with its statute
- Counties covered
- 66
- every one has its own page
- Veterans in this state
- 0.06M
- Rating thresholds that matter
- 0
- each one opens something different
How to use this, in four steps
You are on step 1. Nothing is locked — browse everything first, then check the ones that look relevant.
See what you may be entitled to
Browse every verified benefit in your state. No questions, no account — everything is open.
Check whether you qualify
Open any benefit and answer a few questions about that one. We stop as soon as we know.
Get the letter that shows the finding
A VA Benefit Summary Letter configured to show service connection, the rating and permanence satisfies most offices without disclosing any diagnosis.
Which of these sounds like you?
Pick one and we will narrow the list. You can change or clear it at any point.
Two things sharpen this a lot
Both optional. Your county decides where you file and what a property tax exemption is actually worth; your rating decides which thresholds you cross.
Where do you live?
We use this once to work out your county, because property tax is decided county by county. No benefit is ever matched on a ZIP code alone.
Your VA disability status
What does my rating actually unlock?
Read the record for the figures in South Dakota — the exemption was raised to $200,000 and the summaries have not caught up.
3 likely, 23 possible
What you appear to qualify for — worth checking.
One question checks 10 of them. You can skip it and keep browsing.
How were you discharged?
2 more questions could resolve others. We ask them one at a time.
POW, Pearl Harbor and Purple Heart Plates — $10 a Year Instead of Registration
South Dakota issues POW, Pearl Harbor Survivor and Purple Heart plates for $10 AT ISSUE AND $10 A YEAR FOR THE RENEWAL DECAL, IN LIEU OF annual registration fees — so the whole registration bill becomes ten dollars. MEDAL OF HONOR PLATES CARRY NO ANNUAL REGISTRATION FEES OR ANY OTHER FEES AT ALL. None of these routes needs a disability rating; they turn on the status or the decoration. You must be a South Dakota resident with a state driver licence or non-driver ID.
VeteransApplies statewide$10 at issue and $10 a year in lieu of registration; Medal of Honor plates are free
Read it and check if you qualifyBranch Emblem Plates for $10 — Any Honorably Discharged Veteran
South Dakota offers branch-emblem plates — Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine, Navy and SPACE FORCE — to any honorably discharged veteran who served on active duty, for a $10 special-plate fee ON TOP OF regular registration. No rating, no wartime service, no decoration. You need an active South Dakota driver licence or ID card. Renewal is at the standard registration rate, so the $10 is a one-off rather than annual. A $12 mailing fee applies where plates are posted.
VeteransApplies statewide$10 special-plate fee, plus regular registration
Read it and check if you qualifyCDL Skills Test Waived — and Even Exchange Takes the Written Tests Too
South Dakota waives the CDL skills test for a current or former member of the armed forces, including Reserve and National Guard, who holds a military licence to operate a military commercial vehicle. FORMER MEMBERS HAVE ONE YEAR AFTER SEPARATION OR RETIREMENT. Separately, EVEN EXCHANGE waives BOTH the knowledge and skills tests for qualifying specialties — Army 88M, 92F and 14T, Air Force 2T1, 2F0 and 3E2, USMC 3531, Navy EO — with commanding-officer verification. Check your specialty before booking anything.
VeteransApplies statewideThe skills test waived; Even Exchange waives the knowledge tests too
Read it and check if you qualify$200,000 Exempt — Not the $150,000 the Summaries Say, and the Surviving Spouse Keeps It
$200,000 of the home’s value is exempt at permanent and total — recently raised from the $150,000 every summary still quotes — with a separate FULL exemption for paraplegic veterans in adapted homes. Under SDCL 10-4-41 the same $200,000 goes to a surviving spouse, either of a veteran rated permanently and totally disabled from a service-connected disability, or where the spouse receives VA dependency and indemnity compensation for a service-connected death.
VeteransApplies statewide$200,000 of full and true value, exempt
Read it and check if you qualifyA Wheelchair-Designed Home Pays No Property Tax — and the County Can Refund Four Years Back
South Dakota exempts the dwelling of a paraplegic veteran, or one with loss or loss of use of both lower extremities, from property tax in full, where the dwelling is DESIGNED FOR WHEELCHAIR USE to the SDCL 10-4-24.9 standard and is owned and occupied for the full calendar year. Two things are worth knowing. Applications are due to the county assessor by 1 NOVEMBER each year. And the county commission has a DISCRETIONARY POWER TO REFUND UP TO FOUR PRIOR YEARS on petition — so a veteran who has been paying without knowing may get some of it back.
VeteransApplies statewideThe dwelling fully exempt from property taxation
Read it and check if you qualifyHunting and Fishing at $10 for Four Years — From 40%
A resident veteran with a 40% or greater VA allotment — or the "K" award, or 40% Social Security disability plus service, or former POW status — licences for small game and fishing at a $10 fee, valid four years.
VeteransApplies statewide$10 for four years of small game and fishing licences
Read it and check if you qualifyLifetime Park Entrance and Half-Price Camping — 100%, POW or Purple Heart
A resident veteran with 100% total service-connected disability — or POW or Purple Heart status — gets a lifetime state park entrance licence and a 50% discount on camping and the electrical fees that ride with the site.
VeteransApplies statewideLifetime park entrance free; camping and electrical fees at half price
Read it and check if you qualifyPreference in Hiring AND Promotion — Enforceable by Mandamus
A veteran receives preference for appointment, employment and promotion across state departments, counties, municipalities and school districts — with a required interview at minimum qualifications, removal protection with the burden on the employer, and a court remedy when the preference is refused.
VeteransApplies statewidePreference at appointment, employment and promotion; disabled veterans preferred over nondisabled
Read it and check if you qualifyA Month of Free Tuition per Month Served — After Your Federal Benefits, Not Instead of Them
A resident wartime veteran with an honorable discharge earns one month of free tuition at the state universities and technical colleges for each month of qualifying service — floor of one academic year, ceiling of four. Being GI Bill-eligible does not exclude you. SDCL 13-55-2 requires only that federal tuition benefits be applied first: the state benefit begins where the federal ones stop.
VeteransApplies statewideOne month of undergraduate tuition free per month of qualifying service — minimum one academic year, maximum four
Read it and check if you qualifyDisabled Veteran Plate — $10 a Year Instead of Registration Fees
The disabled veteran specialty plate replaces the annual registration fees with a $10 initial plate fee and a $10 annual renewal decal — on up to two sets, for a car, pickup, van or motorcycle. Eligibility is narrower than a rating: an allotment for a total service-connected disability, a statutory benefit for loss or loss of use of an extremity, or a K Award, incurred in wartime or armed conflict. POW, Pearl Harbor survivor and Purple Heart plates carry the same fee treatment.
VeteransApplies statewide$10 initial plate fee and $10 annual decal in lieu of the annual registration fees — up to two sets
Read it and check if you qualifyOccupational Licensure for Military Members and Spouses — Thirty Days, and No Fee At All
A licensing board must issue the licence within thirty days of a completed application from an active-duty member or their spouse who holds a similar licence elsewhere — and SDCL 36-1B-4 bars the board from charging an application fee or any other fee for it.
VeteransApplies statewideLicence issued within thirty days of a completed application, with no application fee or any other board fee
Read it and check if you qualifyThe Michael J. Fitzmaurice State Veterans Home — Nursing Care Only, and a Spouse Route with Its Own Rules
The Michael J. Fitzmaurice State Veterans Home at Hot Springs takes veterans eligible for federal per diem, with preference to anyone domiciled here within the past five years and to members of federally recognised tribes. A spouse can be admitted after a year of marriage; a surviving spouse needs to be 60 and unmarried.
VeteransApplies statewideNursing home care at the Michael J. Fitzmaurice State Veterans Home, Hot Springs; spouses and surviving spouses admitted on their own terms
Read it and check if you qualifyThe Veterans Bonus — Up to $500, and You Can Draw It Twice
A cash bonus of up to $500 for qualifying service in the first Gulf period, and up to $500 again for qualifying service from 1993 onwards. The eligibility test changes shape across four date windows: two of them take any active service, two of them take only medal-qualifying or combat service.
VeteransApplies statewideUp to $500 for qualifying service 2 August 1990 to 31 December 1992, and up to $500 again for qualifying service from 1 January 1993
Read it and check if you qualifyBurial Money: $100 Means-Tested, $200 Not — and Both Run on a One-Year Clock
Two separate payments that families routinely confuse. The burial allowance is up to $100 and only where the estate and immediate family lack the funds. The headstone SETTING reimbursement is $200, with $100 more for etching service details on a privately bought stone — and it carries no means test at all.
VeteransApplies statewideUp to $100 burial allowance where the family lacks funds; $200 towards setting a government headstone or marker, plus $100 for etching service details on a privately purchased stone
Read it and check if you qualifyGuard Tuition — 100%, Not 50%, and 128 Credits of It
A serving Guard member pays no tuition at a state university for up to 128 undergraduate credits, 32 graduate credits, and one approved programme at a technical college. Widely-circulated summaries still say fifty percent. The department's own education page says the reduction is a hundred.
VeteransApplies statewide100% tuition reduction — up to 128 undergraduate credits and 32 graduate credits at the state universities, plus one approved programme at a technical college
Read it and check if you qualifyCertificates for a Claim — the County May Not Charge You
Birth, death, marriage, adoption, divorce, guardianship and conservatorship records, certified, at no charge — when the record supports a claim against a federal or state agency by or for a service member or veteran, their spouse, surviving spouse or dependants. It is a small statute that almost nobody invokes.
VeteransApplies statewideNo county fee for certified copies of birth, death, marriage, adoption, divorce, guardianship or conservatorship records needed to support a claim
Read it and check if you qualifyFree Tuition for the Families of the Killed, the Missing, the Captured — and Guard Line-of-Duty Casualties
Three entitlements to tuition at state-supported schools. A child under 25 of a service member killed in action or who died on active duty qualifies under one; the spouse or child of a prisoner of war or a person missing in action qualifies under the other, which also covers mandatory fees. Separately, dependants of South Dakota National Guard members who died or became disabled in the line of duty — children 24 and under AND spouses — receive a 100 percent tuition waiver.
VeteransApplies statewideFull tuition at state-supported schools; the prisoner-of-war and missing-in-action route also covers mandatory fees
Read it and check if you qualifyThe Diploma You Left Behind — Awarded by the School District
A veteran who left school for the Second World War, Korea or Vietnam may be awarded an honorary high school diploma by a school district of their choosing. No examination, no coursework. It is the sort of thing families arrange for a parent and then wish they had known about a decade earlier.
VeteransApplies statewideAn honorary high school diploma awarded by a school district, for active service in the Second World War, Korea or Vietnam
Read it and check if you qualifyThe State Cemetery — Free for You, $1,002 for Your Spouse, and It Cannot Be Prepaid
The state veterans cemetery at Sioux Falls costs a veteran nothing for any burial option. A spouse interment is $1,002, and the same figure applies whichever option is chosen — casket, in-ground cremation or columbarium niche. The department states plainly that spouse and dependent fees cannot be prepaid and are subject to change, which means a family planning ahead cannot lock the number in.
VeteransApplies statewideNo cost for a veteran on any burial option; $1,002 for a spouse or eligible dependent — covering the gravesite or niche, a pre-placed grave liner, the headstone or niche cover and perpetual care
Read it and check if you qualifyDeployment Cannot Be Used Against You in a Custody Case
The codified law says it directly: a court may not consider a parent's past deployment or possible future deployment in itself. The one exception is written just as plainly — where, on return, either the service member or the child shows a substantial and material change of circumstances that adversely affects the ability to care for the child, the best interests of the child decide. The same chapter provides an expedited hearing and testimony by electronic means.
VeteransApplies statewideA statutory bar on treating past or possible future deployment as a custody factor in itself, plus an expedited hearing and testimony by electronic means for a deploying parent
Read it and check if you qualifyNo State Lease-Termination Right — the Federal Act Is the Whole of It
Several states put a military lease-termination right in their own landlord and tenant law, on top of the federal one. This state does not. Chapter 43-32 is the entire codified law on the lease of real property here, and its section list contains no military, active-duty, deployment or permanent-change-of-station provision at all. A service member breaking a lease here is relying on the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and only on that.
VeteransApplies statewideNo state lease-termination provision for service members — the federal Act stands alone here
Read it and check if you qualifyVeterans Court — Two Tracks, 13 or 15 Months, Lincoln or Minnehaha County
The Second Judicial Circuit runs a veterans treatment court at Sioux Falls, and it publishes exactly what it demands. You must be 18 or over, have prior service in the armed forces, face felony or misdemeanour charges, live in Lincoln or Minnehaha County, pass a legal screen and a risk and needs assessment, and be willing. You are then placed on Track 1 (minimum 13 months, four phases) or Track 2 (minimum 15 months, five phases). Every phase has a sober-day threshold, rising to 120 consecutive days by the last one.
VeteransApplies statewideA judicially supervised treatment track of at least 13 months (Track 1) or 15 months (Track 2), with a volunteer veteran mentor throughout
Read it and check if you qualifyA Free Ride to a VA Appointment From 42 Rural Counties
Two transit operators hold federal highly rural transportation grants covering this state, and between them they serve 42 counties. The rides go to VA and VA-authorised health appointments and cost the veteran nothing. The eligibility test is not your rating or your income — it is the population density of the county you live in: fewer than seven people per square mile.
VeteransApplies statewideFree transport to VA-authorised health appointments across 42 highly rural counties, run by two grant-holding transit operators
Read it and check if you qualifyGold Star Plate — Parent, Spouse, Sibling or Child, and It Is Not Free
A Gold Star military specialty plate for the parent, spouse, sibling or child of a member who died while serving on active duty or as a result of that service. The relationship list is wider than most people expect — a sibling qualifies. The fee position is narrower than most people expect: $10 to issue, and the ordinary annual registration still applies.
VeteransApplies statewide$10 to issue the plate; ordinary annual registration still applies
Read it and check if you qualifyVeteran Designation on a Licence or ID — Six Ways to Prove It, One of Them a CVSO Signature
An honorably discharged veteran may have a veteran designation printed on a driver licence, permit or nondriver identification card. The statute lists six acceptable proofs, and the last one matters: a certificate signed by a county veterans service officer on the state veterans department’s own form. Nobody who has lost their discharge papers is shut out.
VeteransApplies statewideA veteran designation printed on your licence, permit or nondriver ID
Read it and check if you qualifyThe Disabled Veteran Plate Is Already a Parking Permit
A vehicle displaying the disabled veteran plate may park without time limitation where parking is restricted by time, and may park in any space reserved for a person with a disability. The parking statute names the disabled veteran plate alongside the medical-certification plate. There is no second application, no physician certificate and no placard to obtain.
VeteransApplies statewideUnlimited time in time-restricted parking, and access to reserved disability spaces
Read it and check if you qualify
Does my county change the answer?
For the statewide records, no — the same law applies in all 66 counties. What changes is the office you file with and the local tax arithmetic, which we do not yet hold for South Dakota.
- Aurora County
- Beadle County
- Bennett County
- Bon Homme County
- Brookings County
- Brown County
- Brule County
- Buffalo County
- Butte County
- Campbell County
- Charles Mix County
- Clark County
- Clay County
- Codington County
- Corson County
- Custer County
- Davison County
- Day County
- Deuel County
- Dewey County
- Douglas County
- Edmunds County
- Fall River County
- Faulk County
- Grant County
- Gregory County
- Haakon County
- Hamlin County
- Hand County
- Hanson County
- Harding County
- Hughes County
- Hutchinson County
- Hyde County
- Jackson County
- Jerauld County
- Jones County
- Kingsbury County
- Lake County
- Lawrence County
- Lincoln County
- Lyman County
- McCook County
- McPherson County
- Marshall County
- Meade County
- Mellette County
- Miner County
- Minnehaha County
- Moody County
- Oglala Lakota County
- Pennington County
- Perkins County
- Potter County
- Roberts County
- Sanborn County
- Spink County
- Stanley County
- Sully County
- Todd County
- Tripp County
- Turner County
- Union County
- Walworth County
- Yankton County
- Ziebach County
Every benefit here was checked against the statute or rule behind it, and each page shows the date. This is an informational match, not a government eligibility determination — the responsible agency decides your application.