Ohio - 2023

Final Grade

B

Projected Grade

A

Graduation Requirements

Is a high school course with personal finance concepts required to be taken as a graduation requirement? Yes, Ohio requires that students who entered 9th grade before July 1, 2022 (until the Class of 2025) receive instruction in financial literacy as a high school graduation requirement.

Projected Grade Narrative

Grade A for the Class of 2026. Starting with students who begin 9th grade after July 1, 2022 (Class of 2026), students will be required to receive a half-credit of financial literacy to graduate from high school. This is equal to a half-year course of 60 hours of instruction under Ohio law. The financial literacy course can substitute for a half-credit elective or for certain half-credit math courses required for graduation. The financial literacy course cannot count toward social studies graduation credit. A law passed in 2021 mandates that beginning with the 2024–2025 academic year, districts require financial literacy licensure for educators teaching financial literacy. The law indicates that social studies, family and consumer sciences, and business education teachers will be able to teach financial literacy without the need for the additional validation contemplated by the law.

High School Education Standards

Ohio's Learning Standards for Financial Literacy were adopted by the State Board of Education in February 2018. The standards list the following topics: financial responsibility and decision-making, planning and money management, the informed consumer, investing, credit and debt, and risk management and insurance. It is up to local districts to determine how to best meet the needs of their students when implementing this graduation requirement. For example, the financial literacy content may be incorporated into another course, or some districts may require students to take a stand-alone financial literacy course for a half-credit that can meet either a graduation requirement for social studies or an elective. Hours of instruction cannot be estimated for all students, since each local school district determines how it will deliver the required personal finance education and implementation methods vary by local school districts. The Department of Education has created an Ohio Financial Literacy Model Curriculum. This curriculum gives guidance to educators as they teach the standards and create aligned assessments. State law does not mandate that school districts use these guidelines.

Extra Credit

The Ohio Department of Education's website includes a robust list of financial literacy resources. In 2021, Senate Bill 1 created a high school financial literacy fund to help pay for educator training in this area.

Caveat

It is not clear how Ohio measures student achievement in financial literacy or how the state monitors local school district implementation of the financial literacy education requirement.

Year Of Projected Grade

2026