College & career readiness in Virginia
Virginia requires an Academic and Career Plan for every student by grade 7, aligned to the Profile of a Virginia Graduate — which requires workplace skills and career exploration for every diploma.
ACP — Academic and Career Plan
The ACP at a glance
The moving parts every Virginia counseling team is tracking today — usually across spreadsheets, PDFs, and a filing cabinet.
Work-based learning & financial aid in Virginia
Work-based learning
Virginia's High-Quality Work-Based Learning framework defines 12 recognized WBL types with quality criteria — one of the clearest state WBL taxonomies.
FAFSA & financial aid
No FAFSA graduation mandate; state completion dashboards and regional pushes continue.
Atlara ↔ ACP
ACP by grade 7
Middle school career investigation seeds the plan; it matures through senior year.
Profile of a Graduate
Workplace skills, engagement, and exploration all leave evidence in the student record.
HQWBL types
Placements are typed and documented to Virginia's quality criteria.
Credential visibility
The diploma credential requirement is tracked per student, not per audit.
Policy details above are a planning summary, not legal guidance — confirm current requirements with the Virginia Department of Education.