learnfinancewithIndiana
Personal financial responsibility instruction must be completed as a separate subject to graduate (IC 20-30-5-19(d)); IC 20-32-4-17 makes it an additional graduation requirement with school certification to IDOE. The new diploma rule (511 IAC 6-7.2-20(b)(3)) requires one credit in Personal Financial Responsibility for students entering high school in 2025–26 or later (class of 2029+).
Cohorts expected to graduate in 2028 or thereafter (statute); class of 2029+ under the new diploma, whose credit sits inside the diploma itself. For the class of 2028 it is a free-standing statutory condition layered on the old Core 40/General diploma.
First binds the class of 2028.
- How it may be delivered
- STANDALONE — EMBEDDING IS FORBIDDEN. IC 20-30-5-19(b), (c) and (d) each require the instruction 'as a separate subject' (the phrase appears three times). Subsection (e) permits the State Board to let the course ALSO satisfy diploma course or competency requirements (double-counting allowed), but the course itself must be discrete.
- Credit value
- one credit under the new diploma rule (511 IAC 6-7.2-20(b)(3), class of 2029+); the STATUTE for the class of 2028 specifies NO credit value — IDOE designates 4540 (one semester, one credit) as the preferred course. Indiana counts one credit per semester course.
Source: 511 IAC 6-7.2-20(b)(3); IDOE course description 4540
- Instructional-hour rule
- Not yet verified to a primary source — we publish only what we can cite.
- Below high school
- Grade 8 is covered as an instruction-OFFERING obligation, not a checkpoint: IC 20-30-5-19(a) covers all high-school students enrolled in grades 8-12. As enacted (SEA 35) the span was grades 6-12; HEA 1243 (2024) NARROWED it to 8-12 effective July 1, 2024 — any source still saying 6-12 is stale. No elementary requirement, no middle-school assessment; the only checkpoint is the graduation gate.
- State-mandated assessment
- NONE. Neither statute nor diploma rule references an assessment; compliance is course completion with school certification to IDOE (IC 20-32-4-17). Indiana's assessment program (ILEARN, I AM, WIDA, PSAT, SAT School Day, AP) contains nothing covering personal finance.
- Who may teach it
- Unusually permissive by design: any grade 5-12 secondary educator holding valid Indiana licensure (instructional, administrator, or counselor) with financial/math/business PD, training, or work experience may teach 4540; a locally-issued secondary adjunct permit holder with such experience also qualifies. The PD condition is the only content gate — a district can qualify an existing teacher via PD. Stricter NLPS assignment codes apply to 7150. Informational only.
Source: IDOE memo, Personal Financial Responsibility Course & Career Planning (Feb 2024)
- State course codes
- 4540 — Personal Financial Responsibility (IDOE-designated preferred course; one semester/one credit; MEDIUM confidence) · 7150 — Personal Finance and Banking (accepted ALONE for the new diploma; under the class-of-2028 statute's CTE-concentrator option it must be PAIRED with 4562 — two semesters, two credits; MEDIUM confidence) · 4519 — AP Business with Personal Finance (accepted for the new diploma; HIGH confidence) · 4562 — Principles of Business Management (NOT independently sufficient; pairs with 7150; MEDIUM confidence)
- Standards framework
- Operative standards live in the ICHE Next Level Programs of Study (NLPS) course 4540 competencies; IDOE’s 2024 Financial Literacy Standards Correlation Guide (04/30/2024) maps them to the archived 2011 academic standards (6 core standards, coded e.g. 12-4.2.1)
- Funding a district may cite
- (1) Perkins V — the eligible agency is the INDIANA COMMISSION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION (CHE), not IDOE, since FY2023; directly citable because 4540/7150 sit in CTE programs of study. (2) State CTE Tuition Support (IC 20-43-8) — over $195M in FY 2023-24, distributed by enrollment; can make offering 4540 revenue-positive. (3) Title II-A (PD — directly relevant since 4540 qualification is satisfiable via PD). (4) Title IV-A.
Source: Indiana CTE Perkins V State Plan FY24-27 (CHE); IC 20-43-8
- State agency contact
- No dedicated financial-literacy staff published. IDOE Office of Teaching and Learning — teachingandlearning@doe.in.gov (Jacob Koressel, Director); Dr. Charity Flores, Chief Academic Officer; diploma memo authors Rebekah Frazer (School Counseling) and Linsay Osos (CTE Programming); StudentPathways@doe.in.gov; main line 317-232-6610.
Facts on this page last verified 2026-08-09; every pack is re-verified on a six-month cadence, and anything we cannot cite is marked rather than guessed.
The district awards the credit — no platform can. Ours is designed to align with the state’s learning standards, and it produces the documentation a district needs to award credit: the course object with its federal course code, a pass determination that shows its arithmetic, an hour ledger that counts only observed instructional minutes, and a verified record of demonstrated mastery for every student.