Louisiana High School Students Will Be Able to Use One Application for Dual Enrollment, Under Rep. Ken Brass's Act 438

By Staff @ Bayou Weekly

Louisiana high school students will be able to apply for dual enrollment at the state's public colleges through one statewide application. Act 438 of 2026, by state Rep. Ken Brass of Vacherie, requires the Board of Regents to have that process in place by the start of the 2027-2028 school year.

Brass, a Democrat, represents House District 58. His official House page lists a district office in Vacherie and names Ascension, St. James and St. John the Baptist as the parishes he represents. He was the primary author of House Bill 649 in the 2026 regular session. The bill page lists no co-authors.

Dual enrollment lets a high school student take a college course and earn credit on both the high school and college transcripts. The Board of Regents' family guide says those courses can come from technical, community and four-year colleges. Academic Affairs Policy 2.22 says they may be taught at the college, at the high school, online or in a mix of those settings.

Families have often had to apply through each college that offers a course. Act 438 directs the Board of Regents, in coordination with Louisiana's public colleges, to "establish and administer a uniform, statewide application process for high school students to apply to participate in dual enrollment programs." Every public college is required to take part unless it gives written notice of non-participation to its management board. Those boards, working with the Board of Regents, also have to adopt plans to improve student access, efficiency and cost savings. They have to set a standard uniform tuition rate for dual enrollment courses.

The law took effect Aug. 1, 2026. The new application process and the uniform tuition rate have to be implemented no later than the beginning of the 2027-2028 school year. For this school year, the Board of Regents still tells families to apply through the college that offers the course. Students can also start an application at ApplyDE, the Regents' dual enrollment portal, now in a live pilot. The apply page says to talk with a school counselor or dual enrollment coordinator. Questions can go to 225-342-4253 or dualenrollment@laregents.edu.

A single application will not place a student in a class. Colleges still decide whether a student meets eligibility, placement and prerequisite rules. Academic Affairs Policy 2.22, revised Aug. 26, 2026, to carry out the new law, sets statewide minimums. For academic courses, a student can qualify with a 2.5 high school GPA plus a subject test score or a counselor's recommendation. A 3.0 GPA in the subject plus a counselor's recommendation also works, as does a 2.5 college GPA from earlier dual enrollment work. For technical courses, the usual minimum is a 2.0 high school GPA or a counselor's recommendation. Colleges may add their own requirements, and some technical programs have age or safety rules.

The same policy calls for one statewide tuition rate per credit hour for academic dual enrollment courses and one for career and technical courses, with books, supplies and course-specific fees listed separately. The Board of Regents is required to publish those rates where families can find them, but the dollar amounts have not been posted yet. They are due by the start of the 2027-2028 school year.

School systems can still keep their own agreements with colleges. Dual enrollment credits taken at a Louisiana public college are designed to transfer among the state's public institutions, and the Board of Regents publishes a master course articulation matrix that shows how common courses line up from one campus to another.

The bill drew no recorded opposition. The House passed it 101-0 on March 25, 2026, the Senate passed it 36-0 on May 13, and the House agreed to the Senate's amendments 94-0 on May 20. Gov. Jeff Landry signed it May 29, making it Act 438.

Bayou Weekly's legislator series has also covered new university lab school funding, the Purple Star designation for colleges that serve military students and Louisiana's school emergency operations plan law.

Photo: Spatms, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0 (resized). The columned front entrance of River Parishes Community College in Louisiana, December 2025.