High school students also enrolled in technical colleges will no longer face HOPE scholarship restrictions.
A new bill effective July 1 won’t count hours a student earns during joint enrollment as part of the 95 credit hours the HOPE scholarship covers.
“The change will encourage students to dually enroll with a technical college,” said Steve Bradshaw, vice president of student services at Coosa Valley Technical College. “Students can take classes and get a jumpstart toward their college credits,” he said.
The restrictions kept many students from joint enrollment in technical schools because it limited how much money they would receive for college classes after they left high school.
Bradshaw said now students can change their major when they transition from a joint-enrolled to a full-time student, and it won’t go toward that 95 hour cap.
“It’s a bonus for good students who choose to enroll in a technical college,” he said.
School officials estimate that this change in legislation will dramatically increase the number of students enrolled in state technical colleges.
“I think it will help us significantly,” said Craig McDaniel, president of Coosa Valley Technical College.
During the 2007-2008 school year, there were 127 students joint enrolled. McDaniel estimates that in two or three years there will be as many as 400 to 500 students joint enrolled at CVTC from the Floyd and Rome City Schools.
“We are working on building relationships with high schools. Currently we have good relationships with Floyd County and Rome City schools,” McDaniel said.
The majority of students last year were from the Floyd County and Rome City schools.
School officials say more students are also expected to joint enroll with the opening of the Floyd County College and Career Academy in August.
Ground was broken on the academy’s school of robotics and engineering in May, which is expected to be completed next year.
Click here to read an archived report, "Ground broken on school of robotics and engineering."
