Dual Credit in Missouri: the law behind it

The statute

RSMo 167.223

High school may offer postsecondary course options .

The permission and the money question in five short subsections. Public high schools may, working with Missouri public two-year colleges and public or private four-year institutions, offer postsecondary course options, which let an eligible student attend vocational or academic classes on a campus and receive both high school and college credit. The resident district keeps counting the student in its average daily attendance while the student is on campus, so the school is not penalised for letting them go. Colleges may charge reasonable fees, and those fees may be paid by the district of residence or by the student, as determined by the agreement between the two. Whether a family pays is therefore a district question with a documentary answer.

RSMo 173.2500

Dual credit and dual enrollment providers, definitions and application procedure .

The statutory version of the distinction Missouri families keep running into. A dual credit course is college-level coursework delivered by a postsecondary institution and taught in the high school by an instructor with appropriate academic credentials, earning high school and college credit at once. A dual enrollment course is delivered by an approved dual enrollment provider with the student concurrently enrolled in a Missouri high school and that provider. An institution that wants to stay an approved dual credit provider applies in writing to the Coordinating Board every year, and the application has to identify every location where it will offer courses, the courses it plans to offer, and the fee it will charge students per credit hour. The department keeps the list of approved providers public, and a course may not be advertised as coming from an approved provider before the board approves the application.

RSMo 173.2505

Dual Credit and Dual Enrollment Scholarship Act .

Who the state helps pay for. A student qualifies with United States citizenship or permanent residency, Missouri residency, enrollment in a dual credit or dual enrollment course from an approved provider, a cumulative high school grade point average of at least two and a half on a four point scale, and one indicator of economic need. The indicators are listed rather than left to judgment: individual eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch, foster care, state wardship, homelessness under the federal McKinney-Vento definition, a family receiving low-income public assistance such as SNAP or WIC, or living in federally subsidized public housing. Subject to appropriation, the award equals the tuition and fees the student paid to enroll.

The administrative rule

6 CSR 10-2.195

Dual Credit/Dual Enrollment Scholarship Program .

The rule that turns the act into deadlines and definitions, readopted effective August 30, 2023. Applications carry a priority deadline of October 1 for the fall semester and February 1 for spring, with final deadlines of December 1 and April 1, and applications after the priority date are paid only if money is left. Where funds run short the department ranks students by the date their application arrived. Three limits are easy to miss: the rule defines tuition and fees to exclude course-specific fees, it pays nothing for repeat coursework, and it pays nothing for summer. The payment is calculated on what is left after all other non-loan aid has been applied, and it goes to the institution to be credited to the student’s account.

Who pays, and under what authority

Dual Credit and Dual Enrollment Scholarship for students

Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development .

What a family has to produce, which is the part the statute leaves out. Applications go through the state financial aid portal with a transcript, a parent release form, and documentation of the need indicator being claimed: a school approval letter for free or reduced-price lunch, a court order for state wardship, a high school certification for McKinney-Vento status, a department of social services letter for public assistance, or the federal housing form. A student taking courses from more than one approved institution may receive an award from each.

Agency guidance

Dual credit provider approval

Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development, dual credit .

The list to check before a student registers. The department publishes the approved dual credit provider list for each year, along with the criteria hosted by the elementary and secondary department and the accreditor guidelines on dual credit faculty credentials. A course from a provider on the list is built to move between Missouri public institutions; a course from somewhere else may still be fine, and the absence from the list is worth a question.

Dual credit and dual enrollment criteria

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education .

How the college course becomes high school credit, and the conversion a counselor uses. The department sets one unit of high school credit for a five hour college class and half a unit for a three hour college class, and it records the instructor difference behind the two labels: a dual credit course is taught by a high school teacher the college has approved as an adjunct, and a dual enrollment course by a college instructor with no state certification required. Both count in the state school improvement measures, which is why a district has its own reason to want the course to go well.

How it got here

Section 167.223 dates to 1990 and was last amended in 2016. The same 2016 act created both the approved provider process in section 173.2500 and the Dual Credit and Dual Enrollment Scholarship in section 173.2505, and the General Assembly amended both in 2022. The scholarship rule was first filed in 2021, then rescinded and readopted effective August 30, 2023.

Who administers it

These are the offices that answer a question about Missouri 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.

• Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development · Approves dual credit providers, publishes the list, and administers the scholarship.
• Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, dual credit · Sets how districts record the courses and how college hours convert to high school credit.
• Dual Credit and Dual Enrollment Scholarship · The application portal and the document checklist a family files through.
• Missouri Revisor of Statutes · Where sections 167.223, 173.2500 and 173.2505 are published in their current form.

Frequently asked

What is the legal difference between dual credit and dual enrollment here?

Who teaches it. RSMo 173.2500 defines dual credit as college-level work delivered by a postsecondary institution and taught in the high school by a credentialed instructor, and dual enrollment as a course delivered by an approved dual enrollment provider with the student concurrently enrolled.

Does the statute say who pays?

RSMo 167.223 says colleges may charge reasonable fees and that those fees may be paid by the district of residence or by the student, as determined by the agreement between the district and the college. Ask the district which way its agreement reads.

How many high school credits does a college course earn?

The state education department sets one unit of high school credit for a five hour college class and half a unit for a three hour class. The district applies it, so confirm the figure before the semester starts.

What does the scholarship leave out?

Rule 6 CSR 10-2.195 defines tuition and fees to exclude course-specific fees, pays nothing for repeat coursework, and pays nothing for summer terms. It is also calculated after all other non-loan aid is applied.

How do we know a college is an approved provider?

The department publishes the list each year, and RSMo 173.2500 requires each institution to apply annually stating where it will teach, which courses, and the per credit hour fee. A course cannot be advertised as coming from an approved provider before the board approves it.