Tennessee

What the state requires

One-half credit in Personal Finance is required for a regular high school diploma (SBE High School Policy 2.103; Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0520-01-03-.06). NO Tennessee statute creates the requirement — it is State Board rule and policy.

All students earning a regular diploma. No primary source states which graduating class or cohort the requirement first applied to — left null rather than inferred.

The detail, every line cited

How it may be delivered

STANDALONE 0.5-credit course OR an approved SUBSTITUTE per SBE Policy 3.103 (rev. 02/27/2026): Dual Enrollment Business Program; Agricultural Business and Finance; Business Management; Entrepreneurship; or JROTC III (if the instructor attends the Personal Finance training). No embedded option. Statewide Dual Credit Intro to Business is being phased out from 2025-26.tn.gov

Full citation

SBE Graduation Permissions and Substitutions Policy 3.103 (rev. 02/27/2026)

Credit value

one-half credit within the 22-credit minimum for a regular diplomatn.gov

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SBE Policy 2.103; Rule 0520-01-03-.06

Below high school

NONE — SBE Middle Grades Policy 2.102 (rev. 11/22/2024) contains no reference to personal finance, financial literacy, or economics; its required components are ELA, math, science, social studies, project-based civics, arts, a career interest inventory, and one computer science course.tn.gov

Full citation

SBE Middle Grades Policy 2.102

State-mandated assessment

NONE — TCAP EOCs cover English I/II, Algebra I/II, Geometry, Integrated Math I-III, Biology, and U.S. History; no Personal Finance assessment.tn.gov

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TDOE TCAP blueprints

Who may teach it

Rule 0520-02-06-.02(3) (eff. Dec 8, 2024): a personal finance teacher must hold a valid Tennessee license AND either (1) complete at least 14 clock hours of training on the state-adopted Personal Finance standards (TDOE or approved provider), or (2) hold an active endorsement in Economics, Business, Marketing, or Family and Consumer Sciences (these four are exempt from the training). JROTC instructors need the training for the JROTC III substitution. Informational only.law.cornell.edu

Full citation

Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0520-02-06-.02(3)

State course codes

C29H11 — Personal Finance (TDOE course code: C=CTE, 29=Finance content area, H=high school; 'required for graduation but does not count toward concentrator status'; MEDIUM confidence — rests on a single TDOE page, and SBE Policy 3.205 lists Personal Finance under BOTH academic (14.1) and CTE (23.6) headings, so a general-education-prefixed variant cannot be ruled out; verify against the live Tennessee Course Catalog)tn.gov

Full citation

TDOE Finance career cluster page; SBE Approved High School Courses Policy 3.205 (rev. 05/30/2025)

Funding a district may cite

Tennessee Financial Literacy Commission (Treasury; Financial Literacy Program Act of 2010, T.C.A. §49-6-1701 et seq.): FREE PD and curricula for districts — Financial Fitness for Life, $martPath (K-8), My Classroom Economy, NGPF middle school, the 'From Barter to Budget' trunk; 4,850+ educators trained. In-kind training and materials, NOT a claimable district grant; no dedicated state grant line exists.treasury.tn.gov

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Tennessee Treasury, Financial Education school resources

State agency contact

No TDOE personal-finance contact published. State-level contact: Bill Parker, Director, Tennessee Financial Literacy Commission, Department of Treasury — (615) 532-5892, tn.flc@tn.gov, P.O. Box 198782, Nashville, TN 37219-8782.treasury.tn.gov

Full citation

Tennessee Treasury Financial Education pages

Not yet verified · 2

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

• Instructional-hour rule
• Standards framework

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 Tennessee