The Alabama State Department of Education's graduation requirements guidance says each high school student is required to have a four-year plan, and that the plan should reflect the student's aspirations for life after high school. The department's counseling guidance adds that the plan should be reviewed each school year. Beginning with the graduating Class of 2026, students on the Alabama High School Diploma: General Education Pathway must also earn one or more state-approved college and career readiness indicators.

The challenge: a plan without exploration

A four-year plan is only as strong as the aspirations behind it. When students have not yet seen the range of colleges, careers, skilled trades and military options open to them, choosing electives, a diploma option or a readiness indicator can become a matter of filling in boxes. School counselors then spend limited time on first-step questions instead of on the plan itself.

What students tell us

Across the 13th Year™ network, students are most open early, and their options narrow as graduation gets closer:

  • 32%of 9th graders are weighing more than one path after high school. By 12th grade, 16% are.
  • 53%of 9th graders are interested in more than one career field, compared with 33% of seniors.
  • 11%of 9th graders say they are not sure yet what comes next. Only 2% of seniors say so.
  • 23%of students planning on college are also considering another path, such as the skilled trades, the military, work or a business of their own.

For planning, that means the most valuable exploration happens in the first years of high school, while students are still open to what they find.

Figures come from more than 3,800 responses students submitted at 13th Year™ kiosks and school links across the 13th Year™ network in 2026, not only Alabama schools. Students could choose more than one answer, and some responded more than once.

Dual enrollment

Dual enrollment in Alabama

Alabama's community colleges offer Dual Enrollment for Dual Credit under procedures set by the Alabama Community College System (ACCS), which allow eligible students in grades 10, 11 and 12 to earn college and high school credit for the same course. ACCS procedures call for a minimum cumulative unweighted high school GPA of 2.5 and written approval from a secondary school official, with program level exceptions possible through ACCS waiver requests. ACCS also offers Dual Enrollment Scholarship funding for eligible programs, available to Alabama residents and dependent on legislative appropriations. Separately, the Move on When Ready Act, enacted in 2025 and effective July 1, 2026, creates a program for eligible 11th and 12th grade students to take courses at participating public colleges and universities while receiving high school credit, and the Alabama Commission on Higher Education has adopted rules to implement it.

Students who explore careers early, for example through daily exploration on a 13th Year™ kiosk, are better prepared to pick dual enrollment courses that count toward a credential or degree they actually want.

Official program information: Alabama Community College System (Dual Enrollment for Dual Credit); Alabama Commission on Higher Education (Move on When Ready) →

What students need before the planning meeting

The most productive planning conversations happen when a student walks in with something to talk about: a career they read about, a program that surprised them, a question about the military or an apprenticeship. That kind of curiosity comes from exposure, and exposure works best when it is frequent, self-directed and part of the school day.

Practical ways to build exploration into the year

  • Explore before the plan is reviewed. Give students time to look at careers and programs before the four-year plan is reviewed each school year, so course choices reflect real aspirations for life after high school.
  • Connect interests to a readiness indicator. Alabama's approved indicators include options such as a benchmark score on an ACT subject test, an approved industry credential, college credit earned in high school and military enlistment. Students who know where they are headed can choose the indicator that fits.
  • Pair exploration with the Alabama Career Planning System. Use what students discover on their own to add depth to the education plan they build in the state's career planning system.
  • Make exploration self-serve. Let students explore on their own time, so counselor time goes to the conversations that need it.

Where the Student Pathway System™ goes

13th Year™ places an interactive college and career kiosk in a school's hallway, a modern guidance resource students use before, during and after school. Students can explore colleges, skilled trades, military service, scholarships and careers on their own time, then bring those interests to their four-year plan. It supports, and does not replace, Alabama's four-year plan, the Alabama Career Planning System and school counselors.

For administrators, the questions are usually privacy and workload. The 13th Year™ platform is FERPA aligned and designed with student privacy considerations in mind. It does not access the high school's student information system, and no student data is sold. Kiosks come at no cost to the school, and 13th Year™ delivers, installs and supports every kiosk, so it is built to support your counselors, not burden them.

See how 13th Year™ supports Alabama high schools, or request a kiosk for your school.