Pennsylvania

What the state requires

Beginning with the 2026–27 school year, every school entity and nonpublic school must provide a mandatory personal financial literacy course of at least one-half credit, completed once during grades 9–12 (24 P.S. §15-1551(b.1)(1)). No test-out is permitted.

School districts, charter and cyber charter schools, regional charters, intermediate units, area CTCs, AND nonpublic (nonprofit) schools. PDE does not designate a first affected graduating class — local boards decide the grade placement; PDE’s compliant examples include classes of 2027, 2028, and 2030 (the latest possible first cohort).

The detail, every line cited

How it may be delivered

STANDALONE ONLY — embedding expressly prohibited. PDE FAQ: integrating personal finance into another course does not comply; existing embedded content must be separated into its own half-credit course. LEAs may offer multiple qualifying standalone variants (e.g. Personal Finance 0.5, Honors 0.5, Financial Algebra 1.0). Separately, under Act 91 of 2019 (§1605) the CREDIT EARNED may be applied toward local social studies, FCS, math, and/or business credit — credit-counting flexibility, not permission to embed.pdesas.org

Full citation

PDE SAS Personal Finance Toolkit FAQ; 24 P.S. §16-1605

Credit value

minimum one-half credit (“at least one-half credit or half of a full credit”); LEAs set the actual value and may offer higher-credit variants. Under §1605 up to one credit of personal finance may apply to local math, social studies, business, or FCS credit.pdesas.org

Full citation

24 P.S. §15-1551(b.1)(1); §16-1605 (Act 91 of 2019)

Below high school

YES — as required PLANNED INSTRUCTION at every level (22 Pa. Code 4.21(e)(9), 4.21(f)(9) elementary; 4.22(c)(12) middle; 4.23(c)(11) high school), against the K-2/3-5/6-8/9-12 banded Appendix F standards. CRITICAL LIMIT: the Act 35 half-credit COURSE cannot be taught at middle level for high-school credit (PDE FAQ). No state K-8 assessment or reporting checkpoint.pa.gov

Full citation

22 Pa. Code Ch. 4 amendments (Annex A), eff. Feb 8, 2025

State-mandated assessment

NONE — Keystone Exams cover only Algebra I, Literature, and Biology; the PSSA does not assess personal finance. Act 35 also BARS credit-by-exam ('Can a student test out of personal finance? No.'). Only accountability linkage: personal-finance course evidence may feed the Career Readiness Indicator in the Future Ready PA Index.pdesas.org

Full citation

PDE assessment pages; PDE SAS Toolkit FAQ

Who may teach it

No new certification created. An educator holding ANY ONE of seven updated CSPGs may teach it: CSPG 30 Agriculture; 33 Business, Computer and Information Technology PK-12; 35 Citizenship Education 7-12; 44 Family and Consumer Sciences; 49 Marketing PK-12; 50 Mathematics 7-12; 59 Social Studies 7-12. The certification need not match the subject area in which credit is awarded. Statutory protections: the LEA bears the cost of any add-on certification it requires, and no lost planning period except per a CBA. The list is exhaustive — anything not on it (sciences, English, arts, PE, counselors, etc.) is not authorized. Nonpublic schools take the course requirement but not PA certification rules.pdesas.org

Full citation

PDE SAS Personal Finance Toolkit FAQ (CSPG list); 24 P.S. §15-1551(b.1)

State course codes

PIMS/SCED 19262 — Consumer Economics/Personal Finance (PDE STRONGLY ENCOURAGES — not requires — this code for the mandatory course; MEDIUM confidence; the authoritative PIMS Appendix A spreadsheet could not be opened, so verify before reporting)pdesas.org

Full citation

PDE SAS Personal Finance Toolkit; PIMS course codes are the 5-digit NCES SCED codes. PDE publishes no mandated or exclusive code list; a 1.0-credit Financial Algebra variant could map to a different SCED code

Standards framework

Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Personal Finance, Grades K–12 — 22 Pa. Code Ch. 4 Appendix F (first and only version, eff. Feb 8, 2025; standards apply from July 1, 2026): six areas 17.1–17.6, grade-banded K–2/3–5/6–8/9–12, with 59 standards in the 9–12 bandpa.gov

Full citation

22 Pa. Code Ch. 4, Appendix F: 17.1 Personal Finance Fundamentals; 17.2 Income; 17.3 Spending; 17.4 Saving and Investing; 17.5 Risk and Insurance; 17.6 Credit (codes like 17.1.9-12.A; the '17' prefix avoids collision with Economics 6.x, FACS 11.x, CEW 13.x, BCIT 15.x)

Funding a district may cite

NO dedicated state grant — the State Board concluded districts absorb the cost within existing budgets. State-level implementation support totals ~$657,800 across FY2024-25 through FY2029-30 (~$1,000 per LEA over six years) from Title II-A, the PD General Fund line, and assessment funds. Citable: Title II-A; Perkins V (PDE BCTE) where the course sits in a Business/Finance, Marketing or FCS program of study (CAUTION: PDE has not published guidance expressly authorizing Perkins for the Act 35 course); free PDE/SAS Act 48 courses; IU technical assistance; PA Banking and Securities 'Save and Invest PA!'; Philadelphia Fed teacher training.irrc.state.pa.us

Full citation

IRRC #3404 final-form fiscal analysis; PDE toolkit

State agency contact

ra-edpersonalfinance@pa.gov (PDE resource mailbox — no named individual). Certification/staffing: PDE Bureau of School Leadership and Teacher Quality. Practitioner channel: PDE SAS 'Personal Finance Learning Community'. Related: PA Dept. of Banking and Securities, informed@pa.gov.pdesas.org

Full citation

PDE curriculum pages / SAS toolkit

Not yet verified · 1

We publish only what we can cite to a primary source. These fields are still being verified for Pennsylvania, and they are listed rather than filled in with something plausible.

• Instructional-hour rule

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.

See the platformThe one-page brief for Pennsylvania