Graduation Requirements

High school students who intend to pursue a bachelor’s degree at public colleges/universities in Illinois are recommended to minimally take the following subjects in high school: English Language Arts (4 years); Mathematics (3 years); Science (3 years); Social Studies (3 years); and Art, Music, World Language, or Vocational Education (2 years). See individual college admission requirements for detailed information about each institution.

Freshmen and sophomores are required to take seven academic classes per day and one Academic Support Period (ASP) class (for no credit). Sophomores with an unweighted GPA of 3.0 or higher may opt out of Academic Support Period (ASP) to take an additional course for credit. Academic Support Period classes (for no credit) do not count as an academic class.

Juniors and seniors are required to take six academic classes per day, but may elect to take up to eight classes per day. Juniors and seniors have the option to take an Academic Support Period in addition to six or seven academic classes. Except in the case of freshmen and sophomores with a P.E. Exemption, students may not take more than one Academic Support Period per day. Students are required to have one lunch period per day.

Graduation Requirements

A minimum of 26.0 units must be earned as follows:

• At least 12.0 units in the core learning areas of English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Government/Civics, and Consumer Education
• 0.5 units of Health
• 0.5 units of Physical Education for each term of enrollment (for example: a student in attendance for eight terms will earn 3.5 units of PE and 0.5 units of Health)
• 3.0 units of the required Elective Strands
• At least 7.0 units of additional Elective courses, based on future educational plans, career plans, and interests.