Washington - 2023

Final Grade

C

Projected Grade

C

Graduation Requirements

Is a high school course with personal finance concepts required to be taken as a graduation requirement? No, taking a course with personal finance concepts is not a graduation requirement. The Class of 2023 has a noncredit graduation requirement called the High School and Beyond Plan (HSBP). The HSBP is a personalized learning plan that begins in 8th grade and is updated throughout high school. The HSBP requires students to identify career goals (with a skills assessment) and education goals. The HSBP requires that local school districts have evidence that each student has received information on the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and the state's financial aid program that helps pay for postsecondary programs. The HSBP also requires that students be informed about the deadlines for applying for financial aid and postsecondary school admission. The HSBP covers some financial literacy topics.

Projected Grade Narrative

No policy change is pending that would change Washington's grade.

High School Education Standards

In 2015, the state passed a law requiring that financial education, skills, and content knowledge be integrated into the state's learning standards. In 2016, the state adopted financial education learning standards and guidelines. State law requires Washington school districts to provide all students in grades 9 to 12 access to financial education, but it does not require that students take such education. Washington allows each school district to determine how it will offer personal finance instruction.

Extra Credit

In 2009, state law created the Financial Education Public-Private Partnership (FEPPP). The committee brings together individuals from both the public and private sector in an effort to provide quality financial education for students in the public school system. The FEPPP helps educators find professional development opportunities, classroom resources, and curriculum. In 2022, a new law was passed that requires each school district, by March 1, 2023, to adopt one or more goals for expanding financial education instruction to students in their district. The law includes the following examples of goals that school districts may adopt: "(a) Increasing the number of financial education courses available to students in grades nine through 12; (b) Increasing the number of grades, schools, or both that provide students with instruction in, or access to instruction in, financial education; and (c) Expanding the amount financial education professional development training available to certificated staff." This law gives Washington school districts the opportunity to qualify for grants, disbursed through FEPPP, to increase integration of financial education courses into their districts and for professional development trainings for educators. FEPPP developed a menu of model goals that school districts may consider when complying with this new law.

Caveat

While Washington requires all school districts to provide access to personal finance instruction, many delivery mechanisms are allowed to meet this requirement. Districts may provide instruction through "a regularly scheduled class period, before or after school, during lunch periods, at library and study time, at home, via online learning opportunities, through career and technical education course equivalencies, or other opportunities." Districts must provide access to this instruction but are not required to make students participate in the instruction. Any voluntary programming that requires a high school student to come to school early or stay late, adds additional homework (like an online program), or skip lunch or study time will likely result in far fewer students taking the instruction than if it is offered as a stand-alone elective. The Center for Financial Literacy is treating the state requirement to provide access to personal finance instruction as similar to requiring a high school to offer a stand-alone personal finance elective to all students. For this reason, Washington earns a grade of C. However, unlike a semester-long elective course, which requires 60 hours of instruction, the Washington requirement does not specify the number of instruction hours required to meet the access rule. The delivery mechanisms identified could be very short in duration and could greatly discourage attendance by being inconvenient for students. There is a large risk that some high schools and school districts will meet the access requirement in a manner that is so inconvenient that only a small percentage of students will take advantage of the personal finance instruction offering. It is not clear how Washington will measure student achievement in financial literacy or how the state monitors local school district implementation of the financial literacy education access requirement or measures what percent of high school students in the state participate in such offered education.

Year Of Projected Grade

2028