More College Credits for High Schoolers: Colorado's Push for Off-Campus Classes

The Bottom Line

Colorado's popular concurrent enrollment program is expanding to include accredited, off-campus college courses. This means high school students aren't just limited to what's taught on a traditional college campus or inside their own high school to earn free dual credit.

What This Bill Actually Does

Under current Colorado law, the state runs a highly successful concurrent enrollment program. This allows high school students to take college-level courses and earn credit for both their high school diploma and a future college degree simultaneously. But there has always been a strict limitation in the rulebook: off-campus courses offered by higher education institutions have been largely banned from this program. The only exception was for a very specific initiative called the Teacher Recruitment Education and Preparation (TREP) program. For everything else, if it was an off-campus or extended studies college course, high schoolers couldn't use concurrent enrollment to pay for it.

HB26-1078 removes that barrier. The bill strikes the language that explicitly excluded off-campus instruction from the concurrent enrollment program. Going forward, higher education institutions can offer off-campus courses to high schoolers, provided those classes meet a couple of rigorous benchmarks. First, the course still has to comply with all the standard rules laid out in Colorado's concurrent enrollment statutes—meaning it must be a legitimate, credit-bearing college class. Second, it has to meet the strict requirements of an accrediting agency that is officially recognized by the federal government.

By updating Colorado Revised Statutes 22-35-110, lawmakers are essentially telling colleges and school districts that the location of the classroom shouldn't disqualify a student from earning dual credit. Whether the instruction happens in a traditional lecture hall on a university's main campus, or in a localized, off-campus extended studies hub, the credits will count. This allows educational institutions to be much more creative in how and where they deliver college-level instruction to Colorado's teenagers.

What It Means for You

If you're raising a high school student in Colorado, or if you're a student mapping out your own path to graduation, this bill is a massive win for your educational flexibility and your family's bank account. Concurrent enrollment is arguably the best financial hack in the state's education system because your local school district foots the bill for the college tuition. By opening the door to off-campus courses, this legislation dramatically expands the menu of classes you can take for free before you even frame your high school diploma.

Think about how this actually changes things on the ground. Until now, your teenager was generally limited to what a nearby community college offered on its main physical campus, or what a certified teacher could teach inside their specific high school building. But university extended studies programs and off-campus hubs often provide non-traditional hours, hyper-local instruction, or highly specialized content that isn't available elsewhere. If a state university operates an accredited, off-campus learning center right in your town, your kid can now enroll in those classes and get the dual credit. It completely breaks down the geographic barriers to early college education.

These new rules are set to take effect around August 12, 2026, perfectly timed for the kickoff of the 2026-2027 academic year. Now is the time to start asking your high school guidance counselor about how the district plans to adapt. Keep in mind, school districts aren't legally forced to offer every single off-campus class available. They still have to sit down and negotiate specific cooperative agreements with the colleges. But the major legal roadblock that stopped them from even having those conversations is now gone. If there's a specific off-campus program you want your kid to access, you now have the green light to ask your school board to make it happen.

What It Means for Your Business

For most traditional business owners—like local restaurant operators, general contractors, or retail shop owners—this bill won't require any changes to your daily compliance, tax reporting, or operations. However, if your business intersects with workforce development, educational technology, or commercial real estate, this legislation represents a significant structural shift in how higher education is delivered across Colorado. By allowing state funds to flow into off-campus concurrent enrollment, the state is creating a brand new financial incentive for universities to expand their footprint.

Institutions of higher education now have a compelling reason to build out their off-campus programs. Because local school districts can now legally pay tuition for high schoolers to attend these specific off-site courses, colleges can safely invest in localized training hubs, extended studies centers, or pop-up educational partnerships in communities far away from their main campuses. If you own commercial real estate, manage shared workspaces, or provide logistical services that cater to educational programming, you should expect universities to start scouting non-traditional spaces to host accredited, off-campus classes.

Furthermore, if you're an employer struggling to find young talent with specialized, industry-specific skills, this expansion is an opportunity you shouldn't ignore. By moving college coursework off the traditional campus, higher ed institutions can more easily embed specialized training programs closer to where your business actually operates. As school districts and colleges begin negotiating their new cooperative agreements ahead of the 2026 school year, local business leaders have a unique window to lobby their community colleges. You can push them to design off-campus courses that directly feed your industry's talent pipeline, knowing that the state's concurrent enrollment program can now pick up the tab for the high schoolers who enroll.

Follow the Money

The fiscal mechanics of this bill are uniquely structured to have a net-zero impact on the state's General Fund, but it accomplishes this by moving money around in a very specific way. When school districts expand their concurrent enrollment offerings, the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) has to conduct highly detailed audits to ensure everything is above board. They verify student attendance, check the negotiated tuition agreements, and ensure the new off-campus courses meet all state and federal accreditation standards. To handle the increased complexity of auditing these off-campus programs, CDE needs an additional $80,178 in the FY 2026-27 budget to hire part-time auditing and postsecondary workforce staff (0.6 FTE). By FY 2027-28, that administrative cost rises slightly to $85,374.

To pay for these new auditors without asking taxpayers for more money, the state is cutting the exact same amount—$80,178—from a fee-for-service contract that the Department of Higher Education holds with the University of Colorado (CU). Essentially, the university system absorbs a small budget reduction so the state can afford to oversee the expansion of the program. For local school districts and colleges, participating in this expansion is entirely optional. If they choose to offer these new off-campus courses, the school districts will pay the negotiated tuition to the colleges using the per-pupil funding they already receive from the state. No new local taxes are required, but it does mean districts will be redirecting some of their existing funds toward these new higher ed partnerships.

Where This Bill Stands

HB26-1078 is currently Signed Into Law. The latest official action came on 06/01/2026: Governor Signed.

That means the legislative process is complete and the bill is now law. The remaining questions are about implementation timing and how agencies, businesses, or local governments respond.