NC lawmakers lowered high school graduation standards. What are the consequences?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- State law now caps high school graduation at 22 credits, easing early exits.
- Roughly 10,000 students graduated early in 2025, raising preparedness concerns.
- School districts face funding losses as early graduations reduce enrollment.
Tens of thousands of North Carolina high school students are getting their diplomas this month, but state education leaders are worried some graduates are under-prepared due to state lawmakers lowering graduation requirements.
This school year marked the first time that a state law went into effect barring school districts from mandating more courses than what North Carolina requires for a high school diploma. State education officials say 10,000 high school students have taken advantage this school year of this option to graduate early .
The number of early graduates could increase over time as more high school students become aware of how they can get a diploma as early as age 16.
“The idea that the bare minimum should become the rule and not the exception is frightening,” said Kim Jones, the 2023 North Carolina Teacher of the Year and an advisor to the State Board of Education. “It’s frightening and it’s adultification of young people that I think is to their and to society at large’s detriment.”
Schools barred from requiring more than state minimum
State law requires high school students to pass 22 credits, or courses, in various subjects to get a diploma. But the state board had given permission for school districts to add local graduation requirements. For instance, Wake County required 26 credits for graduation.
But things changed in the 2023 state budget when legislators required school districts to offer a sequence of courses that would allow high school students to graduate in three years instead of the traditional four years. This change included barring school districts from requiring more than 22 credits to graduate.
At the time, lawmakers said it was meant to provide families with more education choices by allowing students to graduate in three years.
The change went into effect in the 2024-25 school year.
“What we have before us is a perfect example of the law of unintended consequences,” said state board member Jill Camnitz.
10,000 early high school graduates
Most North Carolina high schools use the block schedule, meaning students take four approximately 90-minute classes each day. Students can complete eight courses each school year.
In prior years, a typical early graduate left in 3 1/2 years at the end of the fall semester of their senior year, according to Sneha Shah-Coltrane, the state Department of Public Instruction’s director of advanced learning and gifted education. But she said a student can graduate as early as age 16 in three years now that only 22 credits are required.
“Even without being a high-achieving child and even without declaring it in eighth-grade, students can finish — if they did the basic elective requirements and the basic core requirements — in their junior year,” Shah-Coltrane told the state board this month.
A state report shows school districts and charter schools identified 2,094 high school juniors who plan to graduate this school year on a three-year pathway. But Shah-Coltrane said that figure is a rough total and initial data indicates that there are 10,000 high school students who are graduating early this school year.
State officials were not able to immediately compare that 10,000-student figure to prior years.
Early graduation costs schools money
Early graduation appeals to students who plan to go to the military or directly into a job, according to Ian House, a student at Panther Creek High School in Cary and an advisor to the state board.
“A lot of them think why do I need to spend four years if I’m not going to go to college?” House said.
But state board vice chair Alan Duncan pointed to the example of students in the northeastern part of North Carolina who graduated early to try to get high-paying jobs in Portsmouth, Virginia. Duncan said the students didn’t realize they had to be at least 18 to get those jobs.
“They’re working at McDonald’s because they couldn’t get those jobs because they’re not 18,” Duncan said. “Nothing is wrong about working at McDonald’s. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but it’s not the jobs that they were anticipating that they were going to get.”
Schools get money for each student enrolled. Early graduations means fewer high school seniors and less funding.
“It’s adversely affecting their budget as they go forward,” Duncan said.
Are kids ready to graduate at age 16 or 17?
Multiple concerns were raised at last week’s State Board of Education meeting about whether a student is prepared for life graduating at age 16 or 17. Students that young might not have the needed soft skills, according to Darrell Pennell, an advisor to the state board.
“I’m also concerned that a 16-year-old or even a 17-year-old being of the level that we would want for them to go on to live in the community, to work in the community, go to college or whatever that might be,” said Pennell, who is also a member of the Caldwell County school board.
Narrowing graduation requirements to the bare minimum of 22 credits “seems to push us to sort of the lowest common denominator,” according to Jones, the former Teacher of the Year, Jones said part of the process of attending high school is to help students mature and learn about the world.
“In what world do I send a 16-year-old that I still have to get a permission slip to show a rated R film or documentary into my class,” said Jones, who teaches English at Chapel Hill High School. “In what world do I say that young person has graduated high school but is clearly not an adult?”
Donna Bledsoe, the 2023 North Carolina Principal of the Year, has been talking with her daughter, who turns 17 in August, about why early graduation is not the best option. As part of the notification requirement mandated by lawmakers, Bledsoe’s daughter has been told multiple times by her high school that she can graduate early.
“I’m hopeful that we can talk to kids about the unintended consequences very transparently but also involve their parents in those discussions and those decisions,” said Bledsoe, the principal of Cedar Ridge Elementary in Surry County and a state board advisor.
