Grade A for the Class of 2031. In June of 2024, Governor Newsom signed into law a bill that would add the completion of a separate, stand-alone one-semester, half year, course in personal finance to the graduation requirements commencing with students that graduate in the Class of 2031. The new requirement applies to all public and charter high schools in the state. The law allows the course to be offered to students in grades 9-12. With regard to the law, the governor stated "We need to help Californians prepare for their financial futures as early as possible. Saving for the future, making investments, and spending wisely are lifelong skills that young adults need to learn before they start their careers, not after." The law does not allow this personal finance course to be combined with any other course. For example, a high school could not comply with this graduation requirement by having students take a one-semester course that combines economics and personal finance concepts in a single half-semester course. Beginning with the Class of 2031, the law allows students that complete the personal finance course to elect to be exempt from the existing graduation requirement to complete a one-semester course in economics. Local school districts are allowed to eliminate one or more locally required courses in order to accommodate the new required personal finance course, commencing with the Class of 2031. The law requires high schools to begin offering the personal finance class to students in the 2027-28 school year. The law also requires that on or before May 31, 2026, that the State Board of Education (SBOE) adopt a curriculum guide and resources for the personal finance course, based on a curriculum guide and resources developed and recommended by the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC). The law requires the curriculum guide and resources to include the financial literacy topics considered by the IQC as part of the history-social science framework revision. The law appropriates $300,000 from the General Fund to the IQC for purposes of developing, and recommending to the SBOE, the curriculum guide and resources. The law specifies a long list of personal finance topics that the IQC must consider when creating these materials. In the event that the SBOE has not adopted a curriculum guide and resources for this personal finance course by May 31, 2026, the law requires local school districts to locally develop the curriculum and resources to offer this personal finance course. If each local school district were required to develop these materials (rather than relying on IQC materials approved by the SBOE), the law would likely be an imposition of a state-mandated local program under the California Constitution. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. The law provides that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made by the state to local school districts. This law expressly authorizes a teacher holding a single subject teaching credential in Social Science, Business, Mathematics, or Home Economics to teach the new financial literacy course. The law would also authorize the IQC to additionally establish a supplementary authorization that could allow teachers holding single subject teaching credentials in other subjects to teach the personal finance course.
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