Dual Enrollment and Dual Credit in Mississippi: the law behind it

The statute

Miss. Code § 37-15-38

Dual enrollment and dual credit, brought forward in House Bill 897 (2025) .

The definition that decides whether a course helps a student graduate. A dual enrolled student is enrolled at a community or junior college or a state institution of higher learning while enrolled in high school. A dual credit student is the same student receiving high school and college credit for the same coursework, at one Carnegie unit per three-hour course. The section leaves tuition to the postsecondary institution, the district, the parents, or grants and other sources, with payment going straight to the credit-granting institution. It requires that a qualified dually enrolled student be allowed to earn an unlimited number of dual credit hours, and it lists four delivery routes, including a course taught at the high school by a district employee the college has approved.

The administrative rule

Miss. Admin. Code Title 10, Part 691

Dual Enrollment/Dual Credit Scholarship Rules and Regulations .

The only administrative rule Mississippi wrote for this program, and it covers the money rather than the course. It limits the scholarship to a Mississippi resident classified as a junior or senior in a public or charter high school who is a dual enrolled or dual credit student under section 37-15-38, at an eligible participating public or not-for-profit institution, and who meets the criteria in the state procedures manual. Early college students are excluded, and the student applies online by the deadline. The Office of State Financial Aid no longer lists this scholarship among its programs, so a family should confirm its status before counting on it.

Who pays, and under what authority

Miss. Code §§ 37-106-85 to 37-106-93

Mississippi Dual Enrollment/Dual Credit Scholarship Program Act of 2023 .

The 2023 act that created the scholarship, effective July 1, 2023. It reached students in grades eleven and twelve who are Mississippi residents, covered up to six dual enrollment or dual credit semester credit hours before high school graduation, and reimbursed institutions at 40 percent of the average community college credit hour tuition. Books, course materials, tools, supplies, lab fees, transportation, and other course fees stayed with the student or the district, which is the part of the arrangement that survives whatever happens to the appropriation.

Agency guidance

Procedures Manual, Fall 2025

Procedures Manual for the State of Mississippi Dual Enrollment and Accelerated Programs .

The document that supplies the numbers the statute leaves out, jointly used by the community college system and the universities. Academic dual enrollment asks for a junior or senior with a 3.0 grade point average and a counselor or principal recommendation. Career and technical dual credit reaches sophomores and above at a 2.0 with school approval. The manual also carries the rule for staying enrolled and the treatment of course alignment. A family told a different number by a campus should ask which edition of this manual the campus is working from.

Dual Enrollment and Dual Credit

Mississippi Community College Board .

The community college system’s plain-language version of the statute and the manual, and the place most Mississippi dual credit actually happens. It restates the two definitions, the Carnegie unit conversion, and the exclusion of remedial and developmental courses from dual credit, which is the exclusion that catches students placed below college level in mathematics.

Who administers it

These are the offices that answer a question about Mississippi 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.

• Mississippi Department of Education, accelerated programs · The school-side office for dual enrollment and dual credit.
• Mississippi Community College Board · Runs the community college side and co-publishes the procedures manual.
• Institutions of Higher Learning, dual enrollment · The university side of the same program, with the current manual.
• Mississippi Office of State Financial Aid · Where state aid programs and their current status are listed.

Frequently asked

What is the difference between dual enrollment and dual credit in Mississippi?

Section 37-15-38 defines a dual enrolled student as one taking college coursework while in high school, and a dual credit student as one receiving both high school and college credit for it. Only the second helps a student toward graduation.

Does state law cap how many credits a student can earn?

No. Section 37-15-38 requires that a qualified dually enrolled student be allowed to earn an unlimited number of credits for dual credit. Any ceiling a family runs into comes from a budget, a schedule, or a scholarship rule.

Where do the 3.0 and 2.0 grade point rules come from?

From the state procedures manual rather than the statute. Academic dual enrollment asks a junior or senior for a 3.0 with a recommendation, and career and technical dual credit asks a sophomore or above for a 2.0 with school approval.

Is the state scholarship still available?

Check before you plan around it. The 2023 act and the Part 691 rules are still published, but the Office of State Financial Aid does not currently list the Dual Enrollment/Dual Credit Scholarship among its programs.