High School Graduation Requirements
Set by State Board of Education

            The State Board of Education establishes minimum graduation requirements that are designed to ensure that graduates have taken courses in several different subject areas and that should result in students having mastered essential knowledge, skill and competencies. Local boards of education must adopt graduation policies that include at least the state minimum graduation requirements. Local board policy may include additional requirements in accordance with needs and aspirations of students and the communities they serve.

            The state minimum high school graduation requirements comprise 24 units of credit that must be earned between grades 9 and 12. The requirements are stated in terms of the number of units of credit that must be earned in each of several subject areas. To earn one unit of credit, a student must meet all the course requirements and earn a passing grade in a course that meets for at least 7,830 minutes a year. Half- and quarter-units of credit may be earned for courses meeting proportionately fewer minutes. Following are the requirements by subject area and, in some cases, specific courses, together with interpretative notations.