Counting Junior High Classes for High School Credit

I received the following question:

 My daughter is in 8th grade this year. I am curious, if she takes classes this year that meet her HS requirements, can I count them as such or does she have to wait until next year for them to count?

The answer to this really depends upon your specific school or entity that you are under academically, but generally speaking yes, you can typically count 2-3 credits from junior high (7th/8th grade) towards your high school credit requirements.

Usually there are restrictions on the type of credits that are allowed, and they typically fall into the following three categories:

• MATH: This is the most common one, if you take Algebra 1 and/or Geometry in 7th or 8th grade then those courses will count towards your high school credit requirements (note that sometimes you might still have to take math every year of high school even if you get an early start, such as in Tennessee).
• SCIENCE: You can typically count Physical Science towards your high school credits if taken in 8th grade.
• FOREIGN LANGUAGE: If you get a jump start on your foreign language credits then you can almost always still count towards high school credit.

Some schools/states will allow credit to be counted in other instances, but the above three are the most frequent circumstances. This can be a great way to get an early start on high school and balance out the workload a little bit, but do remember that if you count a course for high school credit then that grade will go on your transcript, so you want to make sure your teen is academically ready for high school material.

Have other questions about high school and/or career prep for your teen? Submit your questions to [email protected], and grab a copy of our FREE High School Resource Guide here.