Kansas - 2023

Final Grade

D

Projected Grade

A

Graduation Requirements

Is a high school course with personal finance concepts required to be taken as a graduation requirement? No, a specifically identified course with personal finance concepts is not a graduation requirement for the Class of 2023.

Projected Grade Narrative

Grade A for the Class of 2027. Kansas's grade should increase to a Grade A. This is dependent upon how new graduation requirement rules are implemented for the graduating Class of 2027. On April 11, 2023, the State Board of Education updated the graduation regulation (KAR 91-31-35). The new regulation requires that prior to graduation high school students: (i) complete one half-unit of financial literacy (a half-year course) and (ii) file a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) with the United States Department of Education. (This requirement can be waived by the parent or the student if 18 years old or legally emancipated.) The new regulation notes that a unit may only satisfy one graduation requirement at a time. This language seems to imply that a half-unit financial literacy course would not be allowed to also count toward the required units for social studies and mathematics.

High School Education Standards

State regulation requires each school board to adopt a written policy specifying that students are eligible for graduation only upon completion of "three units of history and government, which shall include … concepts of economics." No specific course is identified for teaching economics concepts. Local districts determine how to deliver the content. But the social studies standards approved by the board of education in 2022 indicate that economics is an elective and not a course that is required to be taken by students. The economics standards include seven content topics, one of which is personal finance. By leaving the course selection to the local districts, it is impossible to know how high school students in Kansas are taught these required concepts of economics and whether they consistently include personal finance content. Kansas's approved financial literacy content standards apply to grades K to 12. However, whether such education occurs is left to local control. If a school district decides to provide personal finance education, then the training must align with these state approved standards. In 2022, they updated these state standards to the most current 2021 version of the national standards.

Extra Credit

By statute, the State Board of Education is required to: (i) assist in the implementation of programs that teach personal financial literacy; (ii) develop a curriculum, materials, and guidelines that local boards may use in implementing a financial literacy program; (iii) develop state curriculum standards for personal financial literacy for all grade levels; (iv) encourage school districts when selecting textbooks for mathematics, economics, family and consumer sciences, accounting, or other appropriate courses to select those textbooks which contain substantive personal finance concepts; and (v) ensure that questions are included that relate to personal financial literacy in the statewide assessments for mathematics or social studies. The state department of education website provides financial literacy resources to local school districts.

Caveat

It is not clear how Kansas measures student achievement in financial literacy or how the state monitors local school district implementation of the economics requirements and whether such instruction contains personal finance content.

Year Of Projected Grade

2027