learnfinancewithPennsylvania
Beginning with the 2026–27 school year, every school entity and nonpublic school must provide a mandatory personal financial literacy course of at least one-half credit, completed once during grades 9–12 (24 P.S. §15-1551(b.1)(1)). No test-out is permitted.
School districts, charter and cyber charter schools, regional charters, intermediate units, area CTCs, AND nonpublic (nonprofit) schools. PDE does not designate a first affected graduating class — local boards decide the grade placement; PDE’s compliant examples include classes of 2027, 2028, and 2030 (the latest possible first cohort).
- How it may be delivered
- STANDALONE ONLY — embedding expressly prohibited. PDE FAQ: integrating personal finance into another course does not comply; existing embedded content must be separated into its own half-credit course. LEAs may offer multiple qualifying standalone variants (e.g. Personal Finance 0.5, Honors 0.5, Financial Algebra 1.0). Separately, under Act 91 of 2019 (§1605) the CREDIT EARNED may be applied toward local social studies, FCS, math, and/or business credit — credit-counting flexibility, not permission to embed.
Source: PDE SAS Personal Finance Toolkit FAQ; 24 P.S. §16-1605
- Credit value
- minimum one-half credit (“at least one-half credit or half of a full credit”); LEAs set the actual value and may offer higher-credit variants. Under §1605 up to one credit of personal finance may apply to local math, social studies, business, or FCS credit.
- Instructional-hour rule
- Not yet verified to a primary source — we publish only what we can cite.
- Below high school
- YES — as required PLANNED INSTRUCTION at every level (22 Pa. Code 4.21(e)(9), 4.21(f)(9) elementary; 4.22(c)(12) middle; 4.23(c)(11) high school), against the K-2/3-5/6-8/9-12 banded Appendix F standards. CRITICAL LIMIT: the Act 35 half-credit COURSE cannot be taught at middle level for high-school credit (PDE FAQ). No state K-8 assessment or reporting checkpoint.
Source: 22 Pa. Code Ch. 4 amendments (Annex A), eff. Feb 8, 2025
- State-mandated assessment
- NONE — Keystone Exams cover only Algebra I, Literature, and Biology; the PSSA does not assess personal finance. Act 35 also BARS credit-by-exam ('Can a student test out of personal finance? No.'). Only accountability linkage: personal-finance course evidence may feed the Career Readiness Indicator in the Future Ready PA Index.
- Who may teach it
- No new certification created. An educator holding ANY ONE of seven updated CSPGs may teach it: CSPG 30 Agriculture; 33 Business, Computer and Information Technology PK-12; 35 Citizenship Education 7-12; 44 Family and Consumer Sciences; 49 Marketing PK-12; 50 Mathematics 7-12; 59 Social Studies 7-12. The certification need not match the subject area in which credit is awarded. Statutory protections: the LEA bears the cost of any add-on certification it requires, and no lost planning period except per a CBA. The list is exhaustive — anything not on it (sciences, English, arts, PE, counselors, etc.) is not authorized. Nonpublic schools take the course requirement but not PA certification rules.
Source: PDE SAS Personal Finance Toolkit FAQ (CSPG list); 24 P.S. §15-1551(b.1)
- State course codes
- PIMS/SCED 19262 — Consumer Economics/Personal Finance (PDE STRONGLY ENCOURAGES — not requires — this code for the mandatory course; MEDIUM confidence; the authoritative PIMS Appendix A spreadsheet could not be opened, so verify before reporting)
- Standards framework
- Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Personal Finance, Grades K–12 — 22 Pa. Code Ch. 4 Appendix F (first and only version, eff. Feb 8, 2025; standards apply from July 1, 2026): six areas 17.1–17.6, grade-banded K–2/3–5/6–8/9–12, with 59 standards in the 9–12 band
- Funding a district may cite
- NO dedicated state grant — the State Board concluded districts absorb the cost within existing budgets. State-level implementation support totals ~$657,800 across FY2024-25 through FY2029-30 (~$1,000 per LEA over six years) from Title II-A, the PD General Fund line, and assessment funds. Citable: Title II-A; Perkins V (PDE BCTE) where the course sits in a Business/Finance, Marketing or FCS program of study (CAUTION: PDE has not published guidance expressly authorizing Perkins for the Act 35 course); free PDE/SAS Act 48 courses; IU technical assistance; PA Banking and Securities 'Save and Invest PA!'; Philadelphia Fed teacher training.
- State agency contact
- ra-edpersonalfinance@pa.gov (PDE resource mailbox — no named individual). Certification/staffing: PDE Bureau of School Leadership and Teacher Quality. Practitioner channel: PDE SAS 'Personal Finance Learning Community'. Related: PA Dept. of Banking and Securities, informed@pa.gov.
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.