Chesterfield County Public Schools salary schedule: how teachers move to a higher column

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How is the CCPS teacher salary schedule organized?

The district's Compensation Plan for 2026-2027, issued by the Department of Human Resources' Office of Compensation and Benefits under School Board Policy 5400, took effect July 1, 2026. Teachers are paid on the Teacher Scale, headed "200 Days, 8 Hours," with rows from step 0 through step 41.

Across the top are three columns. The column titles also cover high school deans, which explains their slightly unusual labels: Bachelor's Teacher; Master's Teacher, which also pays a high school dean with a bachelor's; and Doctorate Teacher, which also pays a high school dean with a master's. A classroom teacher reads only the degree half of each heading.

The 200-day contract includes up to 15 Professional Responsibility Days, and five of those are built into the work calendar.

Starting placement follows experience rules printed in the plan. Full-time teaching in U.S. public schools, regionally accredited colleges, military dependent schools and accredited private schools earns year-for-year credit. Career and technical education teachers receive one year of credit for every two years of related work, up to three years of military service can count, substitute work does not count, and no one is placed beyond the top of the scale. Our explainer on how to read a salary schedule shows how steps and columns interact.

Which units count toward a CCPS column change?

For pay purposes, Chesterfield counts degrees, not units. The plan's section on teacher pay for advanced degrees reads: "Master's or doctorate degree, if degree is related to the job assignment (doctorate in field) and if the degree was awarded by a regionally accredited institution."

That sentence sets two conditions:

• Relevance. The degree has to relate to the teacher's job assignment. For a doctorate, the plan adds "in field."
• Accreditation. The institution that awarded the degree must be regionally accredited.

Nothing in the plan pays for a block of credits short of a degree. A teacher with 30 graduate-level hours and no master's stays in the Bachelor's column, which makes the comparison in our article on a master's versus extra credits unusually one-sided in this division. Teachers who earn National Board certification are handled separately: the plan states that CCPS guarantees the proposed state contribution for National Board certified teachers, paid apart from the degree columns.

Does CCPS require approval before you take a course?

The compensation plan describes no sign-off before enrolling in a degree program. Its relevance test is applied to the finished degree, so a teacher choosing a program has to judge in advance whether it relates to the assignment. A master's in the subject or grade level you teach fits the wording more clearly than one in an unrelated field. Our article on whether a district will accept a course lists questions worth asking before tuition is paid.

Paying for the coursework is a separate track. The Careers page says CCPS offers tuition reimbursement to any full-time employee twice a year. Employees need a passing grade and must send transcripts; funds go out first come, first served, and reimbursement is not guaranteed.

When are transcripts due, and when does the new column take effect?

The plan ties the start of the higher rate to the degree, not to the paperwork: "The effective date is normally the date of conferral of the degree within the fiscal year." Chesterfield's fiscal year runs from July 1, so a master's conferred in December normally earns the Master's rate from that December onward.

Two other rules in the plan frame that date. Pay adjustments caused by policy or job changes are not made retroactively. Corrections of salary errors are the exception and are made back to the start date of the position within the school year. The plan prints no filing deadline for degree paperwork, and it does not say how a degree reported after its fiscal year has closed is handled, so sending the official transcript as soon as the registrar issues it is the cautious choice. Our transcript deadlines article covers how long registrars usually take.

Do the same units count toward Virginia license renewal?

Here the answer matters more than the column rules. In Chesterfield a single course never changes base pay, yet every semester hour of college credit earns 30 points toward the 270 that renew a ten-year Virginia license, and every quarter hour earns 20. A teacher who takes three three-credit courses between degrees has a full renewal's worth of points and nothing new on the pay scale, which is a fair trade if renewal was the goal.

Virginia also requires employed teachers to get advance approval for renewal activities from their division, a different step from anything in the compensation plan. The details sit in the Virginia renewal section. For the general difference between the two kinds of credit, see renewal credit versus salary credit; the Virginia state guide sets Chesterfield beside divisions that pay plus columns.

Where can CCPS teachers earn graduate-level units?

Every district, CCPS included, decides for itself whether a course counts for the purpose a teacher needs it for: license renewal, an added endorsement or a degree program. No provider, university or website can make that decision, so the rules above come first, and written approval from CCPS's human resources office is the safest record to have before you pay.

CCPS pays by completed degree, certificate level or rating rather than by units, so courses short of a degree do not change a CCPS salary on their own (see units that count). Where graduate-level units still help is license renewal, explained in the renewal section, and any other purpose CCPS or Virginia names in writing.

Graduate-level credit providers, listed with the same facts

For renewal, or for a future move to a district that pays for units, many providers issue graduate-level units through accredited universities. Providers listed on this site, each with the same facts:

• Teacher Friendly: self-paced online, units through University of the Pacific; $336 first course for 3 credits (price notes)
• Credits for Educators: self-paced online, units through University of the Pacific; $297 for 3 credits (price notes)
• CE Credits Online: self-paced, 180 days, units through Valley City State, Augustana, Adams State or Cal Poly Humboldt; from $449 for 3 credits (price notes)
• Connected Classroom Courses: self-paced, letter grade, units through CSU Pueblo; $389 + university fee for 3 credits (price notes)
• Credits for Teachers: self-paced, 6 months, units through Valley City State, Adams State, UMass Global or CSU Pueblo; from $349 for 3 credits (price notes)
• Dominican CA Online: self-paced, units through Dominican University of California; $477 for 3 credits (price notes)

The provider directory lists 28 providers and programs by what teachers need them for, and Compare sets published prices for 16 of them side by side, with transcripts from 11 universities. A listing on this site does not mean CCPS has approved a provider or course; only the district can do that. TeacherPayGuide has commercial relationships with some providers it lists; how listings work.

Sources

1. Compensation Plan 2026-2027, Chesterfield County Public Schools, Department of Human Resources, Office of Compensation and Benefits (district-linked file). Checked November 11, 2026
2. Careers, Chesterfield County Public Schools. Checked November 11, 2026

Reviewed November 11, 2026 by TeacherPayGuide editors.Report an error