Short answer: in most of the United States, zero. Only three jurisdictions require community service hours to graduate from a public high school — Maryland (75 hours), Arkansas (75 hours, starting with the class of 2027), and Washington, D.C. (100 hours). Everywhere else, there is no statewide mandate, which means your hour count is set by your school district or your individual high school. Hundreds of districts do require hours, and the numbers range from about 10 to about 100. If you’re in one of the other 47 states, the honest answer to “how many hours do I need?” is: whatever your district says, and this page will show you how to find that number in about two minutes.
That’s the whole answer. The rest of this page is the detail — the actual statutes, what counts, what gets rejected, and how to look up your own district.
Last verified: August 4, 2026. We check the three mandate states and the Florida Bright Futures rules at the start of every school year and after each state legislative session.
Community Service Graduation Requirements by State
Read this table one row at a time. The states that require community service to graduate are the three bolded rows — that’s the entire list. For everybody else, the column that matters most is the last one: who actually sets the number. In 47 states, it isn’t the state.
| State | Statewide graduation mandate? | Hours required by the state | Who sets your actual requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Alaska | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Arizona | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Arkansas | Yes | 75 (class of 2026–27 and later) | State law, applied by your district |
| California | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Colorado | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Connecticut | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Delaware | No | — | Your district or high school |
| District of Columbia | Yes | 100 (class of 2026 and later) | DC regulation, applied by your school |
| Florida | No | — | Your district — but see Bright Futures below |
| Georgia | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Hawaii | No | — | Your school (Hawaii is a single statewide district) |
| Idaho | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Illinois | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Indiana | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Iowa | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Kansas | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Kentucky | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Louisiana | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Maine | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Maryland | Yes | 75, or a state-approved local program | State regulation, applied by your district |
| Massachusetts | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Michigan | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Minnesota | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Mississippi | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Missouri | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Montana | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Nebraska | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Nevada | No | — | Your district or high school |
| New Hampshire | No | — | Your district or high school |
| New Jersey | No | — | Your district or high school |
| New Mexico | No | — | Your district or high school |
| New York | No | — | Your district or high school |
| North Carolina | No | — | Your district or high school |
| North Dakota | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Ohio | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Oklahoma | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Oregon | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Pennsylvania | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Rhode Island | No | — | Your district or high school |
| South Carolina | No | — | Your district or high school |
| South Dakota | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Tennessee | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Texas | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Utah | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Vermont | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Virginia | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Washington | No | — | Your district or high school |
| West Virginia | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Wisconsin | No | — | Your district or high school |
| Wyoming | No | — | Your district or high school |
A dash does not mean “no hours.” It means the state has not set a number, so your district’s number is the one that decides whether you walk at graduation.
The Three Places With a Real Statewide Requirement
So is community service required to graduate? In these three jurisdictions, yes — and in each one the rule is written down somewhere you can go read for yourself. Here’s what each one actually says.
Maryland — 75 hours, or an approved local program
Maryland was the first state in the country to make service a graduation requirement, effective in the fall of 1993. The rule lives in the Code of Maryland Regulations, in the section titled Student Service (COMAR 13A.03.02, Graduation Requirements for Public High Schools in Maryland). It requires that a student complete either:
seventy-five (75) hours of student service that includes preparation, action, and reflection components and that, at the discretion of the local school system, may begin during the middle grades; or a locally designed program in student service that has been approved by the State Superintendent of Schools.
That second clause is the part almost every other website leaves out, and it changes the answer for most Maryland students. The majority of Maryland districts use the approved-local-program option, not the raw 75-hour count. Prince George’s County, for example, satisfies the requirement with 51 hours of service-learning infused into required Science and Social Studies courses in grades 5–10, plus 24 hours of independent service that the student arranges and documents themselves.
So if you’re in Maryland: you do not necessarily have 75 hours to find on your own. Ask your counselor whether your district runs a state-approved local program, and if it does, ask how many independent hours you personally owe. That number is often closer to 20 or 25.
Sources: Maryland State Department of Education — Service-Learning Graduation Requirement · COMAR 13A.03.02.05, Student Service · PGCPS Service-Learning Requirements
Arkansas — 75 documented hours, starting with the class of 2027
This is the newest mandate in the country, and it’s the reason search traffic for this question is climbing. Act 237 of 2023 — the LEARNS Act — added a community service requirement now codified at Arkansas Code Annotated § 6-16-1901:
Beginning with the graduating class of 2026-2027, a public high school student shall complete a minimum of seventy-five (75) clock hours of documented community service in grades nine through twelve (9-12) in order to graduate.
The Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education issued implementation guidance in Commissioner’s Memo COM-24-021. Details worth knowing:
- The clock starts in 9th grade. Hours earned in 8th grade or earlier don’t count.
- There’s no per-year cap. The state suggests a pace — roughly 15 hours in 9th grade and 20 in each of grades 10, 11, and 12 — but nothing stops you from doing 40 hours in one summer. Some districts treat those figures as recommendations and some as requirements, so check yours.
- Documentation must include preparation, action, and reflection. A signature on a log sheet is not always enough on its own; several districts ask for a short written reflection per project.
- Out-of-state service can count with district approval, and work-based learning may be approved case by case.
- Waivers exist. A district board can waive the requirement individually for a student facing a major illness in the family, homelessness or housing insecurity, or where the student is a significant contributor to family income.
Class of 2027 students are juniors right now. If you’re one of them and you’re at zero, you have two school years and two summers to find 75 hours — which is very doable, but not if you start in April of senior year.
Sources: Arkansas DESE — Community Service Learning · ADE Commissioner’s Memo COM-24-021
Washington, D.C. — 100 hours, class of 2026 and later
D.C. has the highest requirement in the country. Under the graduation regulations at 5-A DCMR § 2203, and per DCPS policy, all students graduating in the class of 2026 and after must earn 100 community service hours prior to graduation. The rules are unusually specific, and they’re the clearest published example of what “counts” generally looks like anywhere:
- Hours must be with a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, a school, or a federal or local government agency, and the service must be non-paying and for the benefit of the community.
- A paid position doesn’t count — DCPS’s own example of an ineligible placement is a childcare center that receives payment.
- A parent or guardian cannot be your supervisor. This one catches a lot of students.
- Service cannot happen during hours you’re required to be in class.
- Service cannot be political in nature.
- Hours from before 9th grade don’t count, though the summer going into 9th grade does.
- Every activity needs a completed Community Service Verification Form. Remote or virtual service needs supporting evidence — photos, a letter, screenshots.
Sources: DCPS — Community Service · DCPS Graduation Requirements Policy · 5-A DCMR § 2203
Florida: Hours for a Scholarship, Not for a Diploma
Florida is where the internet gets this wrong most often, so be precise about it.
Florida has no statewide community service graduation requirement. What Florida has is a scholarship program — Bright Futures — where service hours are an eligibility condition for money, not for a diploma. Under Florida Statutes:
- Florida Academic Scholars (FAS) requires a program of volunteer service or paid work totaling 100 hours — volunteer, paid, or a combination (Fla. Stat. § 1009.534).
- Florida Medallion Scholars (FMS) requires 75 hours of volunteer service, 100 hours of paid work, or 100 hours of a combination of both (Fla. Stat. § 1009.535).
Two rules trip students up. First, hours only count from grades 9–12. Second, you generally must submit a Volunteer Service/Paid Work Hours Work Plan to your school’s Volunteer Service Designee before you start, and your final documentation has to be signed by you, your parent or guardian, and a representative of the organization.
Separately, plenty of Florida districts do require service hours for graduation. Palm Beach County, for instance, requires a minimum of 20 community service hours to graduate, allows hours starting the summer before 9th grade, and accepts either the school’s log form or a letter on the organization’s letterhead. Twenty hours for the diploma and 75 or 100 for Bright Futures are two separate tallies you may be tracking at the same time.
Sources: Fla. Stat. § 1009.534 · Fla. Stat. § 1009.535 · Florida Bright Futures · Palm Beach County Schools — Community Service
Most Requirements Are Set by Your District. Here’s How to Find Yours in Two Minutes.
This is the part every other page hand-waves. If you’re in one of the 47 states with no statewide mandate, nobody on the internet can tell you your number — but you can find it yourself, fast.
1. Search your district’s name plus “community service graduation requirement.” Not your state’s name — your district’s. Districts publish this on a counseling or graduation-requirements page, and it’s usually the first result. If you don’t know your district’s exact name, it’s on the letterhead of anything the school has mailed you.
2. If that turns up nothing, search your high school’s name plus “community service hours.” Individual schools sometimes require hours their district doesn’t, especially schools with an academy, IB, or magnet program.
3. Check your student handbook. Search the PDF for “service.” The requirement is almost always in the graduation-requirements section, and the handbook is the version that governs if a web page contradicts it.
4. Ask your counselor these four questions. Email is fine, and having the answers in writing protects you later:
- How many hours do I need, and is that a district requirement or just a recommendation?
- Which organizations are pre-approved, and do I need approval before I volunteer?
- What form do you accept, and who has to sign it?
- What’s the deadline — end of senior year, or earlier?
That fourth question matters more than students expect. Many districts cut off hour submission weeks or months before graduation so transcripts can be finalized.
5. Write the number down and log hours from day one. The single most common way students lose hours is not doing too little service — it’s doing the service and never getting it documented.
What Usually Counts — and What Usually Doesn’t
Rules are local, but the pattern across the three mandate states and hundreds of district policies is remarkably consistent.
Usually counts:
- Unpaid service for a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, a school, a library, or a government agency
- Service organized by your school — a school-run cleanup, a food drive, a service-learning project
- Time spent actively providing a service: sorting food, walking shelter dogs, tutoring, planting, serving meals
- Virtual or at-home service, if your school approves it and you can produce evidence
- Service done in another state or country, with prior approval
Usually doesn’t count:
- Anything you were paid for (Florida’s Bright Futures paid-work option is the notable exception, and it costs you a higher hour total)
- Work for a family member, or hours supervised by your own parent or guardian
- Chores, babysitting siblings, or helping around your own house
- Time during a class period you were required to attend
- Meetings, training, and planning time — most policies count only the hours you were actively serving
- Fundraising, unless you were also providing the service; sitting at a donation table often doesn’t count while running the event that distributes what you raised does
- Political campaign work (explicitly excluded in D.C., though Florida’s Bright Futures statute names political campaign activity as an acceptable example — this is genuinely jurisdiction-specific)
- Court-ordered community service, which is tracked and reported entirely separately from school hours
That last item deserves one clear sentence, because these two things get confused constantly: school service hours and court-ordered community service are different systems with different paperwork, different approved-agency lists, and different consequences for falling short — a school won’t accept a probation officer’s ledger as a graduation record, and a court won’t accept a school’s service-learning log.
Three Myths Worth Killing
“California requires 40 hours.” No. California has no statewide requirement. The 40-hour figure you’ve seen belongs to specific California districts and high schools. Same story with the “Florida requires 20 hours” claim — that’s Palm Beach County, not the state.
“Any volunteering counts.” Only if it’s approved. The most expensive mistake in this whole topic is completing 40 hours somewhere your district doesn’t recognize. Confirm first, volunteer second.
“I can knock it out senior year.” Sometimes, yes. But approval takes days to weeks at many organizations, background checks and orientations add more, and the highest-capacity placements fill up in the fall. A student who needs 75 hours and starts in March is depending on luck.
Where to Go From Here
You have your number, or you have a two-minute path to finding it. What’s left is the actual service, and the fastest way to start is locally. Our city guides walk through real placements and what a first shift feels like: food bank volunteering in Chicago, animal shelters in Austin, tutoring in Boston, environmental work in Portland, and senior companionship in Denver. If your city isn’t on that list yet, the five national organizations at the bottom of this page all run locators that will find something near you.
One more thing worth separating out: if your hours are for National Honor Society rather than for graduation, that’s a different rulebook, set by your chapter rather than your state or district. Ask your adviser for the chapter’s own number — it is almost never the same as the district’s.
One last piece of advice, from every school counselor who has ever had this conversation in May of somebody’s senior year: find a placement you’d return to. Students who pick one organization and go back weekly finish their hours without noticing. Students who chase one-off events spend more time hunting for hours than serving.
Organizations That Help Students Find Hours Nationwide
These five national nonprofits either place youth volunteers directly or run locators that will find placements near you. All accept or specifically support volunteers under 18, though minimum ages vary by role and location.
1. Points of Light The largest organization in the world dedicated to volunteer service, with an affiliate network spanning 35+ countries and hundreds of U.S. cities. Its volunteer portal lets you filter opportunities by cause and location, and its affiliates are typically the organizations that run city-wide youth service days. pointsoflight.org/volunteer
2. Youth Service America (YSA) Built specifically for volunteers ages 5–25. YSA runs Global Youth Service Day, offers project grants for student-led service, and publishes planning resources that map neatly onto the “preparation, action, reflection” documentation Maryland and Arkansas ask for. ysa.org
3. VolunteerMatch The country’s largest volunteer engagement network, searchable by ZIP code and cause. Listings state age minimums and whether a role is virtual, which makes it the fastest way to filter out placements that will turn a 14-year-old away. volunteermatch.org
4. Habitat for Humanity International Builds and repairs affordable housing in all 50 states through local affiliates. Its youth programs page is one of the clearest published explanations of age gating anywhere: which build-site and ReStore roles accept volunteers at 14, 16, and 18, and what a parent has to sign. habitat.org/volunteer/near-you/youth-programs
5. Feeding America A network of more than 200 food banks and 60,000 partner pantries and meal programs. Food banks are the single most reliable source of documented student hours in the country — high volume, structured shifts, and staff who sign verification forms every day. Use the locator to find the one serving your ZIP code. feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank
We verify the three statewide mandates and the Bright Futures rules at the start of each school year and after each legislative session. If your district’s requirement has changed or you spot an error above, tell us — this page is only useful if it’s right.
