On this page
North Carolina builds the program from two short statutory hooks and a long operating procedure. G.S. 115D-20(4) defines the authorized group a Career & College Promise student belongs to, and G.S. 115D-5(b)(12) is the waiver that makes tuition and registration fees free. The State Board of Community Colleges procedure sets the pathways.
For what the program costs and who is eligible, start at Career & College Promise in North Carolina. This page is the paper trail underneath it.
The statute
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 115D-20(4)
Powers and duties of community college trustees .
A short subsection doing heavy lifting. It places cooperative programs with the public schools inside the trustees’ powers and defines the authorized group that a Career & College Promise student joins. Nothing about pathways or grade point averages appears here; the statute creates the category, and the waiver and the operating procedure below fill it in. A family reading the statute alone will find less than expected, and the next two documents are where the rest sits.
The administrative rule
23 NCAC 02C .0305
Education services for minors .
The administrative rule that lets a college admit a high school age student at all, and the one that says a high school student enrolled through concurrent enrollment is not charged tuition. The system office publishes changes to it as numbered memos, which is the practical way to see when the admission rules for minors move and what a college has to do differently as a result.
Who pays, and under what authority
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 115D-5(b)(12)
Tuition and registration fee waiver .
The waiver that makes the program free. Students in an authorized group under 115D-20(4) get a waiver of tuition and registration fees, which is why a North Carolina family sees no tuition bill for a community college course taken through Career & College Promise. Books, transportation, and any course-specific supplies sit outside the waiver and are usually a local decision.
The agreement between the school and the college
CCP operating procedures
State Board of Community Colleges, Career & College Promise operating procedures .
The document that actually runs the program. The College Transfer pathway and the Career and Technical Education pathway, the grade point average a student needs, the assessments a college may accept, and what a college and a high school each owe are all set here rather than in statute. When a college and a high school give a family different answers about eligibility, this is the text both of them are supposed to be applying.
Agency guidance
NC DPI Career and College Promise
NC Department of Public Instruction, Career and College Promise .
The K-12 agency’s version, written for families and counselors: the pathways, who is eligible, and who pays. It is the shortest accurate summary of the program and a good place to start before opening the operating procedures.
How it got here
The General Assembly established Career & College Promise in 2011 and consolidated the dual enrollment programs that came before it into the single structure that exists now. That consolidation is why older North Carolina programs with other names no longer appear in the statute.
Who administers it
These are the offices that answer a question about North Carolina 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.
- North Carolina Community College System · Sets the operating procedures and publishes rule changes as numbered memos.
- NC Department of Public Instruction · Administers the high school side and publishes the family-facing guidance.
- North Carolina General Assembly · Where the statute and the tuition waiver are published.
Frequently asked
Why does the statute say so little about the program?
Because North Carolina put the detail in the State Board of Community Colleges operating procedures. The statute creates the authorized group and the waiver; the procedures set the pathways, the grade point requirements, and the college obligations.
What exactly is waived?
Tuition and registration fees, under G.S. 115D-5(b)(12). Books and other course costs are not covered by the waiver and are handled locally.
Which document holds the GPA requirement?
The CCP operating procedures. Colleges apply that requirement, which is why a catalog at one college can read differently from a counselor’s handout at a high school.
Where do changes to the admission rule get announced?
In the system office numbered memos, which is where amendments to 23 NCAC 02C .0305 and the related reporting rule are published for the colleges.
Sources
- N.C. General Statutes 115D-20
- N.C. General Statutes 115D-5 · the tuition and registration fee waiver
- NCCCS numbered memo on 23 NCAC 02C .0305
- State Board of Community Colleges, CCP operating procedures
- NC DPI, Career and College Promise
- NCCCS, dual enrollment for high school students
Rules change. These were checked September 2026. Confirm the current version with your school before you act on any of it.
Reading the North Carolina rules with a decision in front of you?
Save this page and the citations sit next to the state's deadlines on your own My FastTrack page; the North Carolina guide saves separately. 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.