South Dakota
Diversion programs for youth increase after boost to county funding • South Dakota Searchlight
A 2023 bill that paved the way for higher payments to counties that keep kids out of the justice system has increased the number of diversion offers from prosecutors across South Dakota.
That was among the takeaways from an annual juvenile justice report presented recently to the state’s Juvenile Justice Oversight Council.
Senate Bill 5, passed in 2023, extended the lifespan of the council, a group created in 2015 alongside a sweeping juvenile justice reform package that aimed to reduce the number of youth in secure detention. The reforms were meant to avoid the harms associated with incarceration for children and offer more fiscally responsible alternatives. Locking up children costs considerably more than probation supervision or in-community programming.
The bill also empowered the council to make adjustments to things like the amount of money paid per kid for diversion programs. The council recommended offering $750 to counties for each successful diversion, a $500 increase. The Department of Corrections (DOC) sponsored a successful bill to boost that funding during the 2024 session.
In the past nine years, counties have collected $4.2 million in incentives from the state.
Avoiding a judge
Children are not charged with crimes in the juvenile justice system, but rather “adjudicated” for the alleged commission of a criminal act. With diversion programs, prosecutors use a report from law enforcement for criminal behavior as the starting point for a set of actions an accused child must take to avoid seeing the incident move through a formal adjudication.
A child charged with alcohol consumption, for example, might be asked to complete a substance abuse evaluation and to check in with the prosecutor’s office monthly while maintaining good behavior for a few months. If the child satisfies the diversion requirements, their case will be closed without them ever seeing a judge.
Juvenile justice report: More delinquent kids taken to court
According to the annual report presented to the oversight council on Tuesday, diversion programming increased for the most common juvenile infractions in 2024.
The last fiscal year “saw two times as many kids getting diversion opportunities from where we started” with the reforms nearly 10 years ago, according to Kristi Bunkers, an oversight council member who leads the DOC’s juvenile justice programming.
Those opportunities translate into better long-term outcomes for troubled youth, Bunkers told the oversight group.
“The research continues to come out in support of diversion,” she said. “It’s a really promising window of opportunity for the system to get it right.”
About 82% of the 2,439 kids offered diversion programming last year were successful, the annual report says. The year before that, there were 2,180 diversions, and just over 83% were successful.
Diversions for alcohol and drugs, crimes against property and persons, sex offenses and tobacco use increased in 2024, according to the report.
Truancy, however, saw fewer diversions than in 2023, down to 270 from 313 in 2023. There were 694 and 565 in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Homeschooling concerns with truancy
David Knoff, a First Circuit judge and oversight council member, said the council’s truancy subgroup met three or four times this year to discuss the issue. Truancy is when a kid is chronically absent from school. Knoff was among the council members to note that truancy cases often suggest deeper issues in a child’s home life.
A child has often missed weeks or months of school by the time a case lands in court, Knoff said, so the subgroup was focused on finding out ways to intervene sooner. The Department of Social Services’ Division of Behavioral Health offers programming to kids and families, serving 4,775 youth in individual or family sessions in 2024.
Cultural healing camps, equine therapy: Federal diversion grants for kids awarded across SD
“How do we make the family aware of how they can tap into those resources, or school districts, how they can get those to the families and get them tapped in to see that they can qualify and get the counseling they need to find out what kind of issues are going on within the homes,” Knoff said.
Knoff also talked about the possibility that truancy cases have been affected by a 2021 law making it easier for parents to pull their children from school and place them in “alternative instruction” such as online schooling or homeschooling.
The law change struck down things like testing requirements and instruction time requirements, and removed a clause that allowed the state’s Department of Education to investigate situations where there’s concern a child might not be getting the instruction they’re required to under state law.
If a child is pulled from school for in-home instruction, Knoff said, “then there is no truancy.”
Knoff said he and others on the council are concerned that some students’ attendance and participation have suffered in certain homeschooling situations.
“It’s not that homeschooling itself is the problem,” Knoff said. “It’s certain parents who maybe don’t have the ability or resources to be able to effectively homeschool, and they can just pull their kid out of school, which has a lot of long-term effects.”
Council member Tiffany Wolfgang of the DSS will leave state government, and the council, at the end of the year after nearly three decades in various social service roles. Wolfgang told the council that as valuable as state-level reports and oversight can be, local school districts and community leaders are critical to crafting the approach to things like truancy.
“Truancy really is a local, local issue in really, truly needing to get the players at the local level in a room together, communicating and talking about what resources we have,” Wolfgang said. “How do we want to address truancy in this community and who needs to talk to whom?”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
The South Dakota Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at Feb. 26, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from Feb. 26 drawing
03-14-22-50-57, Bonus: 04
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes of $100 or less: Can be claimed at any South Dakota Lottery retailer.
- Prizes of $101 or more: Must be claimed from the Lottery. By mail, send a claim form and a signed winning ticket to the Lottery at 711 E. Wells Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501.
- Any jackpot-winning ticket for Dakota Cash or Lotto America, top prize-winning ticket for Lucky for Life, or for the second prizes for Powerball and Mega Millions must be presented in person at a Lottery office. A jackpot-winning Powerball or Mega Millions ticket must be presented in person at the Lottery office in Pierre.
When are the South Dakota Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 9:38 p.m. CT daily.
- Lotto America: 9:15 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Dakota Cash: 9 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 10:15 p.m. CT daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a South Dakota editor. You can send feedback using this form.
State Sen. Sydney Davis, R-Burbank, speaks in the South Dakota Senate at the Capitol in Pierre on Feb. 10, 2026. Davis is sponsoring a bill that would ban the use of SNAP benefits for soda purchases. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
By: John Hult
PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) – The question of whether South Dakota moves to ban the use of government food assistance for sugary drinks is in the hands of Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden, who has signaled his opposition to the bill all through the 2026 legislative session.
The state Senate voted 27-6 on Wednesday to endorse House Bill 1056, after the House passed it earlier 58-11. Assuming the same levels of support, both margins are wide enough to overcome a Rhoden veto, should he choose to issue one.
The bill directs the Department of Social Services to ask for a federal waiver to allow the state to bar the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for the purchase of soft drinks.
SNAP is a federal program, managed by the state, through which people with low incomes get a monthly allowance for food through a debit-like card that can be used at most stores to buy nearly any consumable grocery item save alcohol and prepared foods.
Representatives from Rhoden’s office testified against the bill in House and Senate committees, arguing that the administrative costs would be too high. A fiscal note attached to the bill between its passage in the House and its appearance on the Senate’s Wednesday calendar estimated that implementation would cost $310,000 through the first two years. Those costs would come from hiring an extra employee and contracting for software to track sales, file reports and help retailers determine which drinks are banned.
Backers see long-term savings to the state, though. A high percentage of SNAP recipients are also on Medicaid, a taxpayer-funded health insurance program open to disabled and income-eligible people.
On Wednesday, Burbank Republican Sen. Sydney Davis noted the connection between excess soda consumption and health problems like obesity, diabetes and tooth decay. Medicaid dental costs alone add up $51 million a year, she said.
Mitchell Republican Sen. Paul Miskimins, a retired dentist, told the body he once counted 32 cavities and seven abscesses in the mouths of 2-year-old twin boys who were covered by Medicaid.
He attributed the tooth decay to sugary beverages.
“I don’t know if that first visit was more traumatic on the boys or on my dental staff and myself,” said Miskimins.
Tamara Grove, R-Lower Brule, was the lone senator to speak in opposition on the Senate floor. She argued that some stores might stop accepting SNAP payments due to the administrative burden of sorting barred products from the rest of their inventories, and pointed out that the bill wouldn’t do a thing to prevent SNAP recipients from loading up on sugary foods like ice cream or snack cakes.
“It gives this look as if there’s going to be this big, huge change in the way that people buy products, but it’s really not going to be,” Grove said.
Some surrounding states, including Nebraska, have moved to ask for a waiver to ban soda sales through SNAP. Such waivers are now an option, as President Donald Trump’s administration is willing to consider granting them. Former President Joe Biden’s administration was not.
Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt, the South Dakota bill’s prime sponsor, got a letter last week from Trump administration officials expressing support for her proposal.
In response, Rhoden spokeswoman Josie Harms told South Dakota Searchlight that the governor “has always been supportive of the Trump Administration’s efforts to Make America Healthy Again,” using a reference to the policy agenda branding used by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“We have met directly with his Administration on this issue, and at no point has our opposition been directed at President Trump or his efforts to reform SNAP,” Harms said. “Our focus has always been on ensuring the implementation of SNAP reform works effectively for our state.”
Harms said Wednesday that Rhoden would answer questions about the bill at a Thursday press conference.
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