Can You Get Both a GED and a High School Diploma? What Parents Should Know
The linoleum in Westbrook High’s guidance office always smells like lemon cleaner and old microwave popcorn. I sat across from Ms. Henderson last November, twisting the lid of my cold coffee, while she pushed a printout of Liam’s transcript across her desk. He was a junior then, three and a half credits short of graduation after two years of on-again off-again attendance tied to his social anxiety. “Most parents assume it’s either a diploma or a GED,” she said, tapping the paper. “But what if he did both?”
I’d always bought into the myth that a GED was a consolation prize, something you only got if you dropped out for good. I thought getting one would automatically invalidate all Liam’s high school work, that colleges and employers would toss his application if they saw a GED next to a diploma. Ms. Henderson pulled up our state’s education department website right there on her laptop, showed me the fine print: there was no rule against holding both credentials. It just wasn’t a path many people talked about.
I drove home, stopped for gas, and found Liam on the couch playing Zelda when I walked in. I explained the idea, and he paused the game, thought for a minute, and said, “Sounds like a good safety net. If I don’t get this last PE credit done before graduation, I don’t have to wait six months to start welding school.” He’d been set on the local community college welding program for a year, and the fall cohort fills up by April. Waiting an extra semester would mean losing his spot.
We signed him up for the free GED prep classes at the public library, two Tuesday nights a week. He kept doing his online credit recovery for the missing PE credit through the district, since he couldn’t make the in-person classes with cross country practice. Most nights, he’d leave his GED practice book on the kitchen counter next to a half-eaten jar of dill pickles, his gaming headset draped over the top. There were weeks he complained it was stupid extra work, that he should just quit the GED and risk waiting. I didn’t give him a big pep talk or push him to keep going. I just said, “It’s your decision. If you want to drop it, I’ll call Ms. Henderson tomorrow.” He always stuck with it.
He took the GED test in early March, passed all four sections on the first try. He finished his PE credit the second week of May, walked across the stage with his class in June, and got his high school diploma. This week, we’re registering him for fall classes, and when we turned in his paperwork to the admissions advisor, she didn’t bat an eye at having both. She just nodded and said it’s not that unusual anymore for kids who’ve had interruptions in high school.
What I’ve learned that I wish I’d known when we were sitting in that office a year ago. First, if your kid is falling behind on credits, ask your guidance counselor straight out if doing both a GED and diploma is an option in your state. Most allow it, but a lot of counselors don’t bring it up automatically because it’s not the standard four-year path. It doesn’t hurt to ask.
Second, check the specific rules for your state ahead of time. A small number of states require you to officially withdraw from high school before you can sign up for the GED, which would rule out getting a diploma later. So if you want to keep both options open, confirm that timing works before you commit to any testing. That one small check can save you a lot of headache later.
Third, the extra work isn’t as heavy as it sounds. A lot of the GED content lines up with what kids are already learning in credit recovery for missing high school credits. Liam spent maybe three extra hours a week on GED prep, and most of that was just taking practice tests after he finished his credit recovery work. It wasn’t double the work, just a little extra practice that gave him a backup.
Fourth, let go of the stigma you might be holding. I was embarrassed at first to tell people Liam was working on his GED. I thought people would assume he was lazy, that I’d failed as a parent. But the reality is, more high school kids than you’d think have mental health struggles, chronic illness, or family issues that throw off their four-year timeline. Having both credentials just removes the pressure of a do-or-die deadline.
Last night, we were sorting through his stuff to pack for his dorm room. He pulled his GED certificate out of a desk drawer, brushed off a layer of pencil shavings, and slipped it into the same folder as his high school diploma, right next to the acceptance letter to the welding program. “Never know when I’ll need it,” he said. He probably won’t. He got the diploma, he got his spot in the program, everything worked out the way he wanted. But last year, when every deadline felt like a test he couldn’t afford to fail, having that backup took so much stress off both of us. There’s no one right path to graduation, and sometimes having two pieces of paper is just the easiest way to make sure your kid can keep moving toward whatever they want next.
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