Thirty states now guarantee that high school students will take a standalone personal finance course before they graduate, according to Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF), a nonprofit that tracks the requirements. Those 30 states enrolled 11,317,673 of the nation's 15,444,882 public high school students in the 2024-25 school year, or 73.3%, according to allk12's analysis of federal enrollment data for grades 9 through 12.
Most of those students have not had to take the class yet. Only 11 of the 30 states have their requirement fully in place, NGPF says. In the other 19, the first graduating class that must take the course ranges from the Class of 2027 to the Class of 2031. The 11 fully implemented states enrolled 2,854,645 high school students, or 18.5% of the national total.
Utah has required a semester of general financial literacy the longest, since the Class of 2008, followed by Missouri since the Class of 2010. California, the largest state, adopted its one-semester requirement in June 2024, and it starts with the Class of 2031. The two most recent states to sign on were Texas, in June 2025, and Delaware, in October 2025. Both start with the Class of 2030.
Personal finance requirements by state
| State | What students must take | First class required |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | One-year Career Preparedness course, including a semester of personal finance | Required since Class of 2013 |
| California | One semester | Class of 2031 |
| Colorado | One semester | Class of 2030 |
| Connecticut | One semester | Class of 2027 |
| Delaware | Half credit | Class of 2030 |
| Florida | One semester | Class of 2027 |
| Georgia | One semester | Class of 2028 |
| Indiana | One semester | Class of 2028 |
| Iowa | One semester, later changed to allow embedding in other courses | Required since Class of 2023 |
| Kansas | One semester | Class of 2027 |
| Kentucky | Full year | Class of 2030 |
| Louisiana | Full year | Class of 2028 |
| Michigan | One semester | Class of 2028 |
| Minnesota | One semester | Class of 2028 |
| Mississippi | One-year College and Career Readiness course, including a semester of personal finance | Required since Class of 2022 |
| Missouri | One semester | Required since Class of 2010 |
| Nebraska | One semester | Adopted May 2021; 92.1% implemented statewide |
| New Hampshire | One semester | Class of 2027 |
| North Carolina | One-year Economics and Personal Finance course | Required since Class of 2024 |
| Ohio | One semester | Required since Class of 2026 |
| Oregon | Full-year course including a semester of personal finance | Class of 2027 |
| Pennsylvania | One semester | Class of 2030 |
| Rhode Island | One semester | Adopted October 2021; 64.9% implemented statewide |
| South Carolina | One semester | Class of 2027 |
| Tennessee | One semester | Required since Class of 2013 |
| Texas | One semester | Class of 2030 |
| Utah | One semester | Required since Class of 2008 |
| Virginia | One-year Economics and Personal Finance course | Required since Class of 2015 |
| West Virginia | One semester | Class of 2028 |
| Wisconsin | One semester | Class of 2028 |
Source: Next Gen Personal Finance, Live U.S. Dashboard, as of October 9, 2026. NGPF counts a state only if it guarantees a standalone course of at least one semester (Delaware's is a half credit). Nebraska and Rhode Island show NGPF's implementation rate instead of a start date.
The other 20 states and Washington, D.C., do not guarantee the course. Some, such as Alaska, embed personal finance standards in other subjects, according to NGPF. They include several large states, such as New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Arizona, Washington, Massachusetts, and Maryland. Those seven states alone enrolled 3,079,407 high school students in 2024-25. Bills to add a standalone requirement died this year in Illinois and Maryland, according to NGPF's bill tracker.
Other groups count differently, so totals vary by source. NGPF counts only states that guarantee a standalone course. Local rules can also add a course on top of the state minimum, as our guide to graduation requirements by state explains.
Do the classes work?
The research points in two directions. A 2014 Federal Reserve working paper by Alexandra Brown, J. Michael Collins, Maximilian Schmeiser, and Carly Urban used credit report data from Georgia, Idaho, and Texas, which put personal finance mandates in place in 2007. Young people who went through school after the mandates had higher credit scores and lower delinquency rates than similar young adults in comparison states, the authors found.
The gains grew over time in Texas. There was no significant improvement in the first year after its mandate, but by the third year credit scores were nearly 32 points higher than in comparison states, according to a summary by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
Another study found no effect. A 2016 study in the Journal of Human Resources by Shawn Cole, Anna Paulson, and Gauri Kartini Shastry found that state mandates requiring personal finance courses had no effect on investing or credit management outcomes. Requiring more math did help, the authors found, with more students later investing, earning investment income, and managing credit better, including fewer foreclosures.
The debate over whether schools or parents should teach money skills is older than any of these laws. We looked at both sides in who's responsible for teaching kids about money.
Sources
Next Gen Personal Finance: Live U.S. Dashboard, Guarantee States
Next Gen Personal Finance: 2026 Financial Education Bill Tracker
Federal Reserve Board: State Mandated Financial Education and the Credit Behavior of Young Adults (2014)
Center for Retirement Research at Boston College: Financial Ed in Schools Sometimes Works
Journal of Human Resources: High School Curriculum and Financial Outcomes (2016)
High school enrollment (grades 9 through 12) from allk12's analysis of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data, 2024-25.
