Guides · State programs · By FastTrack Advising

Dual enrollment in Delaware: dual credit, explained for parents

Published September 18, 2026

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Delaware has no statewide program that makes dual enrollment free. State regulation requires every district and charter school to adopt a dual enrollment policy, name its funding sources, and turn no student away for inability to pay. Most courses run through Delaware Tech, with the University of Delaware and Delaware State also enrolling high schoolers.

The rule: 14 DE Admin Code 506 requires every district and charter school to have a dual enrollment and dual credit policy
Cost: Set district by district; no student may be denied access over the family's inability to pay
Notice: Schools must tell all students what resources exist to help pay for dual enrollment courses
Where: Delaware Tech for juniors and seniors, at the high school, on campus, or by distance learning, plus the University of Delaware and Delaware State
Transcript: The high school transcript has to show dual enrollment courses, dual credit courses, and any dual credit awarded
Financial aid: Dual enrolled students are not eligible for federal financial aid

Who pays, and how to find out in one call

Delaware answers the cost question at the district level. 14 DE Admin Code 506 requires each district and charter school to adopt a policy that identifies the funding sources for dual enrollment and the procedures for applying for them, and to give all students information about the opportunities. What a family pays therefore depends on the school district it lives in.

The regulation does set a floor. No student may be denied access to dual credit or dual enrollment courses because of the student's or the family's inability to pay, and all students have to be notified of any resources that help cover the cost. That sentence is the one to bring to a counselor meeting when the answer comes back as a price.

Delaware Tech says the same thing from the other side: a high school or district may cover part of tuition and fees, some districts cover textbooks, and every high school is different. Ask the counselor what your district covers this year, in dollars, before choosing a course.

Delaware Tech runs most of it

Delaware Tech partners with school districts to teach college courses at a discounted rate during the regular school day, and it enrolls juniors and seniors who are properly admitted to the college and can show college readiness. Courses run at the high school, on a Delaware Tech campus, or through distance learning.

The college's FAQ describes the academic bar as a 3.0 grade point average or a qualifying test score or course record, with the high school or district free to set its own criteria on top. Registration runs through the high school counselor and the regional dual enrollment counselor rather than through a public portal.

For scale, Delaware Tech's published in-state rate in the 2026-27 catalog is $156.75 a credit, plus a $10 a credit technology fee and small per-semester registration and student service fees. The dual enrollment rate is discounted and negotiated with districts rather than published, so that catalog number is a ceiling rather than a quote.

The two universities take high schoolers too

The University of Delaware enrolls academically qualified juniors and seniors through its Professional and Continuing Studies division, with courses delivered on-site at partner high schools and online. Its published guidance recommends a 3.6 grade point average, SAT or PSAT scores of at least 600 verbal and 600 math, and a record of Advanced Placement, honors, or International Baccalaureate work, and the high school has to recommend each student.

Delaware State University runs dual enrollment through partner high schools with a minimum 2.75 grade point average for acceptance, and its director of dual enrollment finalizes the registration after the counselor and student pick courses.

The practical consequence of three different sets of criteria is that a student who is not competitive at one campus may be a straightforward admit at another. Ask which institutions your high school partners with before reading anyone's admission page.

Whether the credit moves

Inside Delaware the answer is usually yes, with conditions worth reading. The University of Delaware treats dual enrollment the same as any other college-level transfer course: a grade of C minus or better that is not pass/fail, evaluated against UD's curriculum, earns UD credit, either as a direct course equivalent or as elective credit depending on the department's reading of the content.

Two details cost families credits every year. The transcript has to come from the college that oversaw the course rather than the high school where it was taught, and UD applies a residency rule requiring 30 of a student's last 38 credits at UD, which caps how much of a degree can arrive from outside.

Delaware Tech publishes course equivalencies through CollegeTransfer.Net and says plainly that transferability does not mean a course applies to the graduation requirements of an intended major, and that the receiving institution has the final say on whether and how a credit counts. Check the course against the major as well as against the college.

What the regulation guarantees your teen

Beyond the money rule, 14 DE Admin Code 506 requires districts to provide multiple points of access, which can include the high school campus, a postsecondary campus, online courses, or a combination. A district that offers dual enrollment only in one building during one period is not meeting that standard.

The regulation also requires the high school transcript to indicate all dual enrollment courses, dual credit courses completed, and dual credit awarded. That matters later, because a college admissions office reading the transcript should see the college work without the family having to explain it.

What the regulation does not do is name a price or create a scholarship. Delaware's state-funded tuition guarantee, the SEED program under Title 14, Chapter 34, arrives after graduation: a resident graduate with at least a 2.5 grade point average can attend Delaware Tech or the University of Delaware's Associate in Arts program on tuition grants for up to 10 continuous semesters, with fees and books excluded.

What we tell families in Delaware

We tell Delaware families to settle the money question in writing before registration, since the district sets it and the answer changes from one district to the next. If the answer is that the family pays, the regulation's inability-to-pay clause and the required notice of available resources are the next two questions, and the counselor is required to have answers.

We also tell them to plan around Delaware Tech and the SEED program together. Dual enrollment credits earned at Delaware Tech in high school, followed by SEED-funded tuition after graduation, is the least expensive route to an associate degree in this state, and that degree is a destination in itself for a student who wants to work at 20.

Questions to ask your counselor

Bring these to the first meeting. The answers decide most of the plan.

What does our district cover for dual enrollment tuition, fees, and books this year?
Which colleges does our high school partner with, and for which courses?
What help exists for a family that cannot pay, and who applies for it?
Where can my teen take the course: here, on a campus, or online?
Will this course appear on the high school transcript as dual credit?
Does this course count toward the major my teen is considering, or only as an elective?

Frequently asked

Is dual enrollment free in Delaware?

There is no statewide program that makes it free. Each district and charter school sets its own policy and funding sources, and 14 DE Admin Code 506 bars denying a student access because of the family's inability to pay.

Who is eligible for dual enrollment at Delaware Tech?

Juniors and seniors who are admitted to the college and can show college readiness. The FAQ describes a 3.0 grade point average or a qualifying test score or course record, and the high school or district may add criteria.

Can a Delaware student take dual enrollment at the University of Delaware?

Yes, through Professional and Continuing Studies, if the high school partners with UD and recommends the student. UD recommends a 3.6 grade point average and SAT or PSAT scores of 600 verbal and 600 math.

Do Delaware dual enrollment credits transfer?

Inside Delaware, usually. UD accepts dual enrollment like other transfer credit with a C minus or better, as a direct equivalent or as elective credit. Delaware Tech notes that transferability does not guarantee the credit applies to a specific major.

Does a Delaware dual enrollment course show up on the high school transcript?

Yes. State regulation requires the transcript to indicate dual enrollment courses, dual credit courses completed, and dual credit awarded.

Can a Delaware dual enrollment student get financial aid?

No. Dual enrolled students are not eligible for federal financial aid. Delaware's SEED tuition program begins after high school graduation for residents with at least a 2.5 grade point average.

Sources

14 DE Admin Code 506, Policies for Dual Enrollment and Awarding Dual Credit · the required district policies, the inability-to-pay rule, multiple points of access, and the transcript requirement
Delaware Technical Community College, dual enrollment · juniors and seniors, college readiness, and the three delivery formats
Delaware Technical Community College, dual enrollment FAQs · the 3.0 grade point average, what districts may cover, and federal aid ineligibility
Delaware Technical Community College, tuition and fees · the 2026-27 in-state rate of $156.75 a credit and the per-credit and per-semester fees
University of Delaware, high school dual enrollment · juniors and seniors, the recommended grade point average and test scores, and the partnership requirement
University of Delaware, transfer credit FAQ · dual enrollment treated as transfer credit, the C minus rule, the transcript source, and the residency requirement
Delaware State University, dual enrollment program · the 2.75 grade point average and the partner high school process
Delaware Code Title 14, Chapter 34, the SEED program · the 2.5 grade point average, the participating institutions, and the 10 continuous semesters

Rules change. These were checked September 2026. Confirm the current version with your school before you act on any of it.

About FastTrack Advising

FastTrack Advising. FastTrack Advising works on dual enrollment and nothing else. We help families choose college courses a high schooler can take now that will still count toward the degree later, we check every course against the transfer rules of the colleges they name, and we stay in the picture through registration so the plan gets used. When the answer for a student is to wait a term, we say that too.

Other state programs

All state programs

PSEO (Minnesota) Free tuition, books, and required fees for 10th through 12th graders, with a May 30 notice deadline that many families miss.
Running Start (Washington) Tuition-free college courses for juniors and seniors at Washington's community and technical colleges and a few universities. Families still pay fees and books, and the student gets to campus on their own.
College Credit Plus (Ohio) Open to 7th through 12th graders, free at Ohio public colleges for public school students, with an April 1 letter of intent and a 30-credit annual cap.
Dual credit (Texas) Each college sets its rate and each district decides how much to cover. Students who qualified for free or reduced lunch in the last five years pay nothing at colleges in the FAST program.
Dual enrollment (Florida) Tuition-free by state law, with a 3.0 unweighted GPA and a qualifying PERT, SAT, or ACT score to get in. Public school students get textbooks covered too.
Dual enrollment (California) Community college courses for 9th through 12th graders through a district partnership called CCAP, with no enrollment fees and no textbook costs, capped at 15 units a term.
Dual Enrollment (Georgia) State funding covers tuition, fees, and books for 30 semester hours, mostly for juniors and seniors. After 30 hours the family pays the college's rate, and ninth graders are outside the program entirely.
Career & College Promise (North Carolina) Tuition paid by the state at community colleges for juniors and seniors with a 2.8 unweighted GPA. Whether the district covers fees and books, and who drives, varies by district.
Concurrent Enrollment (Colorado) Open to 9th through 12th graders with an approved academic plan. The district pays tuition at the community college rate; books and fees are usually the family's, and so is getting to campus.
Dual credit (Illinois) Governed by the Dual Credit Quality Act and a model agreement between each district and college. Whether your teen pays depends on that agreement.
Early College Credit and Start College Now (Wisconsin) Two programs, one for the technical colleges and one for universities, both for juniors and seniors. The district pays most or all of the tuition, and applications are due March 1 for fall and October 1 for spring.
Dual credit (Indiana) Every Indiana high school has to offer dual credit. Priority courses at public colleges cost at most $25 a credit hour, and nothing for students on free or reduced lunch.
Dual enrollment (Michigan) Grades 9 through 12, for courses the high school doesn't offer. The district pays tuition up to a state-set share; anything above it, plus books, is yours. Ten courses across high school.
Dual Enrollment (Alabama) Rising 10th through 12th graders with a 2.5 GPA, at $133 a credit hour plus fees, with a state scholarship that covers some courses when the legislature funds it. No credit cap at all.
Dual Enrollment (Tennessee) The lottery-funded Dual Enrollment Grant pays up to $620.55 for each of the first five courses, then much less. One June 30 application covers the whole academic year.
Dual enrollment (Pennsylvania) Every school entity has to hold at least one dual credit agreement, and none of them has to pay for the courses. The agreement states the cost, and published rates run from $83.50 to $230 a credit.
Dual enrollment (Virginia) Juniors and seniors at the community colleges. Courses on a College and Career Ready Virginia pathway cost the family nothing, and courses outside it are billed at the college rate.
Dual enrollment (Arizona) A community college course taught inside the high school during the school day. Concurrent enrollment is the separate arrangement where the student goes to the college. Price is set district by district.
Dual enrollment (South Carolina) College courses through the state's 16 technical colleges, priced by each college and district, with Lottery Tuition Assistance covering part of the tuition once a student carries six credit hours in a term.
Dual enrollment (Louisiana) A Board of Regents floor for eligibility, four ways to clear it, and a bill the district assembles out of state and federal funds. TOPS Tech Early Start covers career courses for juniors and seniors.
Dual enrollment (Maryland) The Blueprint moved the bill off families for students who meet the College and Career Readiness Standard, and set a floor of two covered courses each fall and spring. Counties add their own terms on top.
Concurrent Enrollment (Utah) College courses for $5 a credit hour, taught mostly inside the high school by a college-approved teacher. Each college sets its own admission bar, and books are still yours.
Concurrent Enrollment (Oklahoma) Juniors and seniors get tuition waived by the State Regents, 18 credit hours a year for seniors and 9 for juniors. Fees and books stay with the family, and each college sets its own entrance bar.
Dual enrollment (New York) No single statewide program. CUNY's College Now is free for New York City public school students, SUNY campuses price their own, and a new state rule makes districts file their partnership agreements in 2026.
Dual enrollment (Massachusetts) Two state programs. CDEP waives tuition and fees at public campuses for eligible high schoolers, mostly in the spring, and designated Early College builds the courses into the school day at no cost.
Concurrent Enrollment (Iowa) College courses run through a district contract with a community college, at no tuition cost to the family. Iowa also runs PSEO, and the two programs treat a failed course differently.
Concurrent Credit (Arkansas) State policy bars a college from billing the family for tuition, fees, or materials on a concurrent credit course. A 2025 scholarship replaced the old Concurrent Challenge grant and pays $65 a credit hour.
Dual Enrollment and Dual Credit (Mississippi) Mississippi separates the two terms in statute. Dual enrollment earns college credit only; dual credit earns high school credit too, and the distinction decides whether the course helps your teen graduate.
Dual Enrollment (Nebraska) Nebraska has no single statewide program, so the price depends on which college your high school partners with. The ACE scholarship covers tuition and mandatory fees for students who qualify on income.
Dual Credit (New Mexico) A statewide program where the college charges no tuition and the school district buys the books. Families pay special course fees and transportation, and the guidance is two courses a semester until graduation requirements are done.
Early College (Maine) Maine pays college tuition for high schoolers through the Aspirations Program, and the class of 2027 forward gets 18 tuition-free credits for the whole of high school.
Dual and Concurrent Enrollment (New Hampshire) The state and the community colleges cover two courses a year for students in grades 10 through 12, and most of those courses are taught inside the high school.
Dual Enrollment (Vermont) Two vouchers, each covering tuition on a college course of up to four credits, for any Vermont student who has finished grade 10, including home study students.
Dual credit (West Virginia) A state-funded pilot pays tuition and academic fees for courses on approved career pathways, for public, private, charter, microschool, learning pod, and homeschool students alike.
Dual enrollment (New Jersey) No statewide free tuition. Public colleges must sign dual enrollment agreements and districts choose whether to join, so the price and the eligibility rules come from your own county college.
Dual enrollment (Connecticut) A board policy rather than a statute sets the rules. Concurrent credit courses are capped at $50 a credit, CT State covers two courses a semester for qualifying juniors and seniors, and UConn ECE has run since 1955.
Accelerated learning (Oregon) Oregon calls the whole category accelerated learning. Dual credit at the high school is free or close to it at most community colleges, and Expanded Options moves a junior or senior onto a campus at no charge to the student.
Dual enrollment (Nevada) No statewide free tuition. Districts sign cooperative agreements with NSHE colleges and each agreement names who pays, so the price runs from $25 a credit at the high school to $154 on a university campus.
Concurrent enrollment (Kansas) Concurrent enrollment means the college course is taught at the high school, and it is not free by default. Excel in CTE pays tuition for approved technical courses, and a district board may cover the rest if it chooses to.
Dual Credit (Kentucky) A $99 ceiling on what a college may charge a high school student, and a state scholarship that pays that rate for one general education course a year.
Dual Credit (Missouri) Missouri draws a line between dual credit and dual enrollment based on who teaches, and the price and the GPA tier both follow from that.
Dual Credit (Idaho) Every Idaho public school student gets $4,625 to spend on college credit between grades 7 and 12, and the fund pays $75 a credit, which is what colleges charge.
Dual Credit (North Dakota) Tuition is the family's here, at a reduced rate that changes with who teaches the course, and Bank of North Dakota covers two courses a year for students on free or reduced lunch.
Dual Credit (South Dakota) Juniors and seniors split a deeply reduced tuition rate with the state, at $80.37 a credit hour, under a statute with a hard rule about what happens if a course goes badly.
Dual and Concurrent Enrollment (Rhode Island) A state fund covers tuition and fees for part-time college courses at the three public institutions, and the statute behind it caps that fund at whatever the budget appropriates each year.
Early College and Running Start (Hawaii) Two programs run off one statute that never says who pays. Early College comes to the high school and the school usually covers it; Running Start puts the student on a UH campus at that campus’s published rate.
Dual Enrollment (Alaska) No state program and no state money behind it. What a college course costs an Alaska family depends on which University of Alaska campus offers it and whether the school district signed an agreement.
Dual Enrollment (Montana) The first two courses or six credits carry no tuition anywhere in the Montana University System, fees are waived, and everything after that costs half of resident two-year tuition, around $60 a credit.
Dual and Concurrent Enrollment (Wyoming) State law bars a college from charging a participating student for textbooks, materials, student services, or any other fee, and from 2026-27 the state starts reimbursing districts for what it costs them.

Planning Dual enrollment for your teen?

Save this page and the state's deadlines show up on your own My FastTrack page, next to the tools. Which courses to take, in which order, so the credits still count at the college your teen ends up at, is the part we do with families.

Save to My FastTrack