Dive Brief:
- Vermont Gov. Phil Scott signed legislation (H. 588) into law Monday that adds an alternative path to becoming a certified public accountant that doesn’t require 150 hours of college credit, typically five years of schooling, according to a press release from the governor’s office.
- The Green Mountain State’s action aligns it with more than 40 other states that have passed so-called CPA pathways laws or changed certification rules as part of a broad licensing revamp.
- The new rules are effective immediately, according to Sadie Fischesser, executive director of the Vermont Society of Certified Public Accountants. “It’s quick,” Fischesser told CFO Dive in an interview. “It really keeps us competitive with other states and it’s designed not to have a lot of Vermont-specific hoops to jump through.”
Dive Insight:
So far approximately 42 states as well as Puerto Rico have formally put new CPA pathways laws on their books, according to Rob Pawlewicz, an associate professor of accounting at the University of Richmond who is closely tracking the change in CPA licensing laws.
Pawlewicz expects a handful of the remaining states to push the changes through this year. “Michigan, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia are definitely still in-play for 2026,” he said in an email Wednesday. “I see no reason why those should die off considering the passage of similar measures in neighboring states to all three.”
Most recently, Rhode Island’s CPA pathways bill was passed Tuesday and awaits signing by Gov. Dan McKee, he said. On June 2 Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry also signed into law CPA legislation (HB 548), setting new CPA rules, according to the state legislature’s website. The changes will be effective Aug. 1.
Legislation in Missouri (SB 1233) was passed and still awaits Gov. Mike Kehoe’s signature, the governor’s spokesperson said Wednesday.
By substituting an extra year of experience, the model being adopted generally requires candidates to complete a bachelor’s degree or 120 credit hours and two years of professional experience, as well as pass the CPA exam.
Dubbed the “bachelor’s plus two,” the initiative to add the option has gained momentum since early last year as the accounting industry has sought to address an accounting shortage by easing the educational requirements for licensing.
Layoffs by some accounting firms and the rising use of automation and AI have suggested that the labor problem may be ebbing. Still, the new rules are needed in Vermont, where the shortage persists, Fischesser said.
“In Vermont the shortage is very real,” she said. “We have a shrinking population and every year we have a fair number of members moving into retirement.”
The total number of CPAs in the small state has broadly been ticking down, she said. There were 1,200 CPAs in Vermont in fiscal 2025, about 50 more than the previous year but well off the peak of about 1,400 active in 2019, she said.
Complicating matters is that there’s been a flight of young professionals out of the state and a decline in the number of accounting programs available to students, she said.
For example, Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, began phasing out its accounting program in 2024 amid declining enrollment, according to a July 2025 report in VTDigger.
Keep up with CPA licensure changes by accessing CFO Dive’s tracker on the topic here.
