Guides · State programs · By FastTrack Advising

Dual Credit in Kentucky: the Dual Credit Scholarship, explained for parents

Published September 18, 2026

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Dual Credit is Kentucky's dual enrollment program, and a participating college may charge a high school student no more than $99 a credit hour in 2026-27. The state Dual Credit Scholarship pays that rate for one general education course a year in grades 11 and 12, plus two technical courses a year from grade 9.

Who: Grades 11 and 12 for general education courses, grade 9 and up for technical courses
Tuition ceiling: $99 a credit hour at participating colleges in 2026-27, half the $198 KCTCS in-state rate
Scholarship covers: One general education course a year, plus two career and technical courses a year
Entrance bar: An unweighted 2.5 high school GPA for general education dual credit, under 13 KAR 2:020
Family also pays: Textbooks, online materials, and any course beyond the scholarship count
Runs through: KHEAA, on policy written by the Council on Postsecondary Education

What a Kentucky dual credit course costs

The ceiling for 2026-27 is $99 a credit hour. A college that accepts the Dual Credit Scholarship agrees not to charge a high school student more than that, and at KCTCS the figure is exactly half the $198 in-state rate. A three-credit course therefore lists at $297 before any scholarship is applied.

The Dual Credit Scholarship pays that amount for one general education course a year, for juniors and seniors. The Work Ready Kentucky version covers up to two career and technical courses a year and opens in grade 9. A student who uses both is looking at three funded courses in a school year and pays the $99 rate for anything past that.

Books sit outside all of it. Bluegrass Community and Technical College bills textbooks, online materials, and digital content to the family unless the high school buys them, and it holds billing until mid-October in the fall and mid-March in the spring so awards can post first. What we tell families in Kentucky is to settle the textbook question in writing with the school before the term starts, because a funded course with a $180 access code attached is a different decision than a free one.

Who the state lets in

The floor is in regulation. Under 13 KAR 2:020 Section 6, a student admitted to a Kentucky public institution in a general education dual credit course needs an unweighted high school GPA of at least 2.5 on a 4.0 scale, plus whatever prerequisites the college attaches to the course. A career and technical dual credit course has no GPA floor in the regulation and turns only on the course prerequisites. Developmental education courses cannot be dual credit at all.

Colleges then build on top of that. KCTCS asks 2.0 for technical courses and somewhere between 2.8 and 3.2 for certain math and English courses, depending on the level, and it accepts ACT, SAT, Accuplacer, ALEKS PPL, EdReady, KYOTE, or Wonderlic scores for placement. A technical course generally wants a 16 on the ACT, college-ready English and reading 18 to 20, and college algebra a 22.

Grades 9 through 12 can enroll at KCTCS, and homeschooled students stay eligible through their senior year. Admission runs through DualEnroll rather than the ordinary college application, which is the step families most often discover late.

The two deadlines that decide who pays

Awards go out first come, first served, and there are two clocks. The high school certifies its students by September 15 for fall and February 1 for spring. The student's own application is due October 1 for fall and March 1 for spring. Miss the school's date and the student's date does not save you.

Every year a student takes a scholarship, they also have to complete a 30-minute college success counseling session. It is short, it is easy to forget, and it is a condition of the award rather than a suggestion.

Homeschool families apply to KHEAA directly on a separate form, on the same October 1 and March 1 dates. Students at public and private high schools get their application link through the school's MyKHEAA account, so if nothing has arrived by early September, that is the call to make.

Which agency owns which rule

Four bodies touch a Kentucky dual credit course. KRS 158.007(8) supplies the definition. The Council on Postsecondary Education writes the dual credit policy under KRS 164.098. KHEAA runs the scholarship under KRS 164.786. The Kentucky Department of Education oversees the academic side and holds a statewide memorandum of understanding with KCTCS.

This matters at a practical level because the rule blocking your teen may live at a different agency than the one your counselor deals with day to day. A GPA question is a regulation question. A money question is a KHEAA question. A course-approval question belongs to the college. Asking the right office first saves a week.

What Kentucky's own data says about the credit

The Council on Postsecondary Education has studied its own students, and the results are unusually specific. Dual credit participants enrolled in college directly after high school at 72 percent, against 53 percent for students who did not take any. About 60 percent of participants earned a 3.0 or better in their first year of college, against 50.8 percent of non-participants.

The effect was largest where the stakes were highest. Among low-income students from underrepresented minority groups, second-year persistence rose by more than 8 percentage points. Enrollment statewide climbed from 23,307 students in 2014-15 to 40,821 in 2019-20.

One finding runs against the usual assumption. CPE found that courses taught by a high school teacher, whether in the high school or on a college campus, produced higher college enrollment rates than the same credit taught by a college professor. If your teen has the choice, the version taught by a teacher they already know is a defensible pick.

Planning past the funded course

The scholarship is generous per course and narrow per year. A junior who wants a full year of college credit by graduation will pay the $99 rate for most of it. Thirty credits at $99 comes to $2,970, spread over two years, before books. Set against a year of university tuition that is still a large saving, and it is a number you can plan around rather than hope for.

The order matters more than the total. Kentucky's general education transfer framework means a course taken to fill a specific requirement is worth more than an interesting elective, so pick the funded course each year to cover something the target college requires. If the target is an associate degree at a KCTCS college, the same logic applies with the degree audit in front of you.

Questions to ask your counselor

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

Which colleges does our high school hold a dual credit agreement with, and does each hold to the $99 ceiling?
Has the school certified my teen for the Dual Credit Scholarship, and by which of the two deadlines?
Which of these courses are coded general education and which are career and technical, since the two scholarships count separately?
Who buys the textbook and the online access code for each dual credit course here?
Which placement test does my teen need for the course they want, and when is it given at this school?
If my teen wants 30 credits by graduation, how many will the scholarships cover and what does the rest cost?

Frequently asked

Is dual credit free in Kentucky?

Not entirely. The scholarship pays tuition for one general education course a year in grades 11 and 12, plus up to two career and technical courses a year from grade 9. Additional courses cost up to $99 a credit hour, and textbooks and online materials are the family's.

What GPA do you need for dual credit in Kentucky?

An unweighted 2.5 on a 4.0 scale for a general education dual credit course, under 13 KAR 2:020. KCTCS asks 2.0 for technical courses and 2.8 to 3.2 for some math and English courses, so check the college awarding the credit.

Is dual credit the same as dual enrollment in Kentucky?

Yes. Kentucky uses dual credit as its official term, defined in KRS 158.007(8) as a college course in which a high school student earns credit from both the high school and the college.

When is the Kentucky Dual Credit Scholarship deadline?

Students apply by October 1 for fall and March 1 for spring. High schools certify their students earlier, by September 15 and February 1. Awards are first come, first served.

Can a 9th or 10th grader take dual credit in Kentucky?

Yes for career and technical courses, which the Work Ready Kentucky scholarship covers from grade 9. The general education scholarship is limited to grades 11 and 12, though KCTCS admits students in grades 9 through 12.

Do homeschool students qualify for Kentucky dual credit?

Yes. KHEAA has a separate application for homeschool students on the same October 1 and March 1 deadlines, and KCTCS keeps homeschooled students eligible through their senior year.

Sources

Kentucky Department of Education, Dual Credit · the definition, the statutes, and which agency owns which piece
KHEAA, Kentucky scholarships and grants · the $99 ceiling, grades served, course counts, deadlines, and the counseling session
Kentucky Administrative Regulations, 13 KAR 2:020 · the 2.5 unweighted GPA, the CTE prerequisite rule, and the developmental education exclusion
KCTCS, dual credit eligibility requirements · GPA by course type, accepted placement tests, grades served, and DualEnroll
KCTCS, tuition and costs · $198 in-state and $99 dual credit a credit hour
Bluegrass Community and Technical College, dual credit cost and scholarships · course counts by grade, both deadlines, and who buys the books
Council on Postsecondary Education, Dual Credit · the 50 percent completion goal and the 2025 dual credit policy
Kentucky.gov, CPE study shows dual credit jumps 75 percent · enrollment growth, first-year GPA, and persistence for low-income students

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 (Delaware) No statewide program makes it free. State regulation puts the policy on every district and charter, bars turning a student away over money, and most courses run through Delaware Tech.
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 (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 Credit 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.

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