learnfinancewithMontana
YES. ARM 10.55.905(2)(h) requires 1/2 unit of ECONOMICS OR FINANCIAL LITERACY for high school graduation.
Graduating class of 2026. Rule effective July 1, 2025 - the 2025-26 school year (extended from the original July 1, 2023 effective date).
In force — first bound the class of 2026.
- How it may be delivered
- EMBEDDED/FLEXIBLE, not a standalone required course: the 1/2 unit must be earned 'within the 2 units of social studies, the 2 units of mathematics, or the 1 unit of career and technical education' - i.e. it counts INSIDE an existing required credit area rather than adding a credit.
- Credit value
- 1/2 unit of economics or financial literacy, within the 20-unit / 13-required-unit graduation framework.
- Instructional-hour rule
- Not yet verified to a primary source — we publish only what we can cite.
- Below high school
- No middle/junior high financial literacy or economics requirement. ARM 10.55.902 requires ELA, mathematics, science, social studies and health/PE annually with no economics or personal finance carve-out; no grade checkpoint exists.
- State-mandated assessment
- NONE. Montana's statewide assessment system (MAST ELA/math, Montana Science Assessment, ACT with Writing, DLM, WIDA ACCESS, NAEP) includes no financial literacy, economics or personal finance test or EOC.
- Who may teach it
- ARM 10.55.708(1) requires teachers to be assigned only to levels and subjects for which they are licensed and endorsed; because qualifying courses span mathematics, social studies, business/marketing, FCS and agriculture, the qualifying endorsement FOLLOWS THE COURSE'S SUBJECT AREA (e.g. 04S ECO Economics 5-12, 12S BUS Business Education 5-12, 12S BM Business Marketing 5-12, 23S FCS 5-12, 02S MAT Mathematics 5-12, 04S BF Social Studies Broadfield 5-12).
- State course codes
- 19262; 02154; 02157; 02159; 04201; 04202; 04203; 04204; 04206; 04207; 04208; 04209; 12052; 12053; 12059; 12061; 12101; 12102; 12103; 12104; 12105; 12106; 12107; 12148; 12201; 18201; 18202; 19251; 19257; 19258; 19259; 08056; 08057 — 33 approved codes spanning Mathematics (Business Math, Consumer Math, Financial Algebra), Social Sciences (Economics variants), Business/Marketing (Banking and Finance, Accounting, Risk Management and Insurance, Securities and Investments, AP CK Business with Personal Finance), Agriculture (Agribusiness Management, Agricultural Entrepreneurship), FCS/Health (Consumer Economics/Personal Finance 19262, Life Skills, Personal and Career Readiness, Health and Life Management) (HIGH confidence) — ALL 33 satisfy the 1/2-unit economics-or-financial-literacy requirement. The buyer could sit in math, social studies, business, agriculture or FCS. NOTE: the FY26 list included 04205 AP Economics and omitted 12061/04207/04208/04209; the FY27 list adds those fo
- Standards framework
- Montana Content Standards for Social Studies for K-12 (Economics strand, SS.E). Montana has NO standalone financial literacy content standards document; OPI instead publishes a 'Financial Literacy Standards Crosswalk' whose URL could not be resolved. (Document dated April 5, 2021; adopted November 5, 2020; implemented July 1, 2021)
- Funding a district may cite
- Not yet verified to a primary source — we publish only what we can cite.
- State agency contact
- OPI Accreditation & Educator Prep Unit, opiaccred@mt.gov (accreditation/graduation requirements); OPI Content Standards & Instruction, opicsi@mt.gov (standards); OPI main office 1227 11th Ave, Helena MT 59601, 406-444-3680.
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.