Concurrent enrollment in Kansas: the law behind it

The statute

K.S.A. 72-3222

Kansas challenge to secondary school students act, definitions .

Who counts as a student for the program, and it is a list of five conditions rather than a grade level. A student is enrolled in grade 10, 11 or 12, or is a gifted child in any grade from 9 through 12; has an individualized plan of study or an individualized education program; has demonstrated the ability to benefit from the regular curricula of an eligible postsecondary institution; has been authorized by the principal to apply; and is acceptable or accepted for enrollment by that institution. Eligible institutions include the state universities, community colleges, municipal universities, technical colleges, and accredited independent institutions whose main campus is in Kansas.

K.S.A. 72-3223

Cooperative agreements between school districts and postsecondary educational institutions .

What has to be written down before a course exists, and it contains the single most useful sentence in the act for a family planning transfer. The agreement must state the academic credit granted, which qualifies as both high school and college credit; require that the work count toward a degree or certificate at the institution; state that the student pays the negotiated tuition and related costs unless the board pays; and require the institution to notify the student or the parent when a course is not a systemwide transfer course approved by the Board of Regents, so the student may not receive credit for it at another state institution. The board of education may, at its discretion, pay all or part of tuition and related costs including fees, books, materials and equipment, paid directly to the institution.

K.S.A. 72-3224

Responsibilities for tuition and costs; credit for course work .

The default position on money and the guarantee on credit. Unless the board has agreed to pay, the student is responsible for the negotiated tuition and related costs, including fees, books, materials and equipment. Against that, a student who satisfactorily completes the coursework shall be granted appropriate credit toward high school graduation, which is a shall rather than a may. Staying in the program requires remaining in good standing at the institution or showing satisfactory progress as the district defines it, the board may provide transportation, and the act expressly does not apply to career technical courses funded under K.S.A. 72-3810 or 72-3819.

Who pays, and under what authority

K.S.A. 72-3810

Career technical education, tuition and fees of students .

The statutory core of what Kansas markets as Excel in CTE. Secondary students admitted to a career technical education course or program conducted by a community college, technical college or the institute of technology may be charged fees, but shall not be charged tuition. The Board of Regents then distributes state funds to those colleges for the cost of those students, to the extent money is appropriated. The definitions matter to a household budget: tuition means the per credit hour, per course or per term charge for instruction, while fees means charges for student services or for books, supplies and other materials a particular course requires. The tuition side is covered by statute and the fee side is not.

K.S.A. 72-3819

Career technical education incentive program .

The money that follows a credential rather than a course. A district receives $1,000 for each graduate who earned an industry-recognized credential in an occupation the secretary of labor has identified as being in highest need, before graduation or by the December 31 after it. On application from a student still in high school, the district then pays half the cost of a credential assessment, up to $1,000, for a credential related to the course the student took. A district is not required to keep paying half after a student has failed the same assessment twice.

The agreement between the school and the college

Kansas Board of Regents Policy Manual, Chapter III, Section A

Board of Regents dual credit definitions and cooperative agreements .

The vocabulary that decides which rules apply. Dual credit is the umbrella. Concurrent enrollment is the subset taught at the high school by a high school teacher during the regular school day under a cooperative agreement. Dual enrollment, in Kansas, means a student taking a college course outside a cooperative agreement, transcripted for college credit without regard to high school credit. A dual credit cooperative agreement is a written memorandum of understanding between the institution and the district, and where no memorandum covers a course, the high school credit is not automatic. The Board also publishes a sample agreement districts and colleges work from.

Agency guidance

Excel in CTE Initiative

Kansas Board of Regents, Excel in Career Technical Education .

How the tuition-free technical lane is administered year to year. Senate Bill 155, passed in 2012, is the origin, and the Board publishes which technical programs are approved for tuition reimbursement and warns that programs may carry fees for textbooks, tools and personal protective equipment that reimbursement does not reach. Because the approved list is reissued, a course funded last year is worth checking again before a student registers.

High school postsecondary enrollments

Kansas Board of Regents, annual dual credit reports .

The data the act itself requires. Under K.S.A. 72-3225 each participating institution reports annually on how many students enrolled from each district, how many completed, the tuition rate charged compared with the rate charged ordinary students, and the amount and percentage each district paid. The Board compiles those into the annual reports published here, which is the place to check what a college charges high school students against what it charges everybody else.

How it got here

The Kansas Challenge to Secondary School Students Act dates to 1993 and was renumbered and amended in 2021, the year the reporting section at K.S.A. 72-3225 was added and the transfer notice was written into the cooperative agreement requirement. The Excel in CTE tuition rule arrived through Senate Bill 155 in 2012.

Who administers it

These are the offices that answer a question about Kansas law rather than about one school or one campus. A district and a college can both be wrong about a state rule, and these pages are where the state's own position is published.

• Kansas Board of Regents, dual credit · Sets the definitions, publishes the sample cooperative agreement, and collects the annual reports.
• Kansas State Department of Education, graduation · Where the state graduation credit requirements a college course counts toward are published.
• Kansas Board of Regents, Excel in CTE · Administers the tuition-free technical lane and publishes the approved program list.
• Kansas Board of Regents, transfer and articulation · Publishes the systemwide transfer course list a Kansas course is checked against.

Frequently asked

Does the statute say who pays for books?

Yes, and the default answer is the family. K.S.A. 72-3224 makes the student responsible for negotiated tuition and related costs including fees, books, materials and equipment, unless the school board has agreed under K.S.A. 72-3223 to pay all or part of it.

Does the high school have to grant credit for the course?

K.S.A. 72-3224 says a student who satisfactorily completes the coursework shall be granted appropriate credit toward the requirements for graduation. The course has to sit under a cooperative agreement for that to apply.

Must the college warn us if a course will not transfer?

Under K.S.A. 72-3223 the cooperative agreement has to require the institution to notify the student or the parent when a course is not a Board of Regents systemwide transfer course, and so may not carry credit at another Kansas public institution.

Can a 9th grader take a concurrent enrollment course?

Only a student the district classifies as a gifted child, under the definition in K.S.A. 72-3222. Grades 10 through 12 are the ordinary range, and the other four conditions in that section still apply.

Where in the law is Excel in CTE?

In K.S.A. 72-3810, which says secondary students admitted to a career technical education course at a community or technical college may be charged fees but shall not be charged tuition. K.S.A. 72-3224 places those courses outside the Challenge Act.