Virginia

What the state requires

One standard unit of credit in Economics and Personal Finance is required for both the Standard Diploma (22 standard units) and the Advanced Studies Diploma (26), as its own discipline area at 1 standard unit / 0 verified credits (8VAC20-132-51).

Students entering ninth grade in fall 2011 and later. VDOE labels the cohort by entry year; "class of 2015" is the four-year derivation.

The detail, every line cited

How it may be delivered

STANDALONE discipline area, with Board-approved routes: the 36-week EPF course; a semester PAIR of Personal Finance (18 weeks) plus Economics (18 weeks); other courses aligned with the EPF Standards of Learning; or, for IB Diploma students, IB Economics + IB Business Management with the EPF SOL incorporated. A credit-accommodation path exists for students with disabilities (Personal Living and Finance + WRS conditions).doe.virginia.gov

Full citation

VDOE Board-approved course guidance (Aug 28, 2025 revision); 8VAC20-132-51

Credit value

1 standard unit of credit; 0 verified credits (36 weeks / 140 hours / 1 credit per the CTE Resource Center)law.lis.virginia.gov

Full citation

8VAC20-132-51

Instructional-hour rule

140 hours minimum. A standard unit of credit is 140 clock hours of instruction plus course requirements (8VAC20-132-10). WAIVABLE: local boards may develop alternatives (8VAC20-132-110, since 2015–16, via written local policy demonstrating comparable content and mastery), and §22.1-253.13:4 lets divisions waive the 140 hours for students pursuing an approved industry certification after completing the curriculum. The ledger counts observed minutes against 140 hours where no local waiver applies.law.lis.virginia.gov

Full citation

8VAC20-132-10 (definition); 8VAC20-132-110 (local alternatives); Code of Virginia §22.1-253.13:4

Below high school

YES at middle school, by infusion: §22.1-200.03(A)-(B) requires economics education and financial literacy instruction in middle AND high school, with Board-approved objectives (adopted April 26, 2006) infused across grades 6-8 SOL and CTE — no discrete middle-school course, no grade checkpoint, no separate elementary requirement.law.lis.virginia.gov

Full citation

Code of Virginia §22.1-200.03

State-mandated assessment

NONE — no EPF SOL test (the credit is 1 standard / 0 VERIFIED), and §22.1-200.03(D) expressly relieves the Board from assessing the objectives in SOL assessments. Optional, non-mandated credentials VDOE references: the W!SE Financial Literacy Certification Test and the Workplace Readiness Skills examination.law.lis.virginia.gov

Full citation

Code of Virginia §22.1-200.03(D); 8VAC20-132-51

State course codes

SCED 19262-I — Economics and Personal Finance, 36 weeks (primary route; MEDIUM confidence — the Aug 2024 guidance listed 22210-I; the Aug 28, 2025 revision lists 19262-I; VDOE's newer authoritative list, Virginia Active SCED Codes v12 (March 3, 2026), is an unparseable binary — verify there before reporting) · SCED 19262-II + 04249 — Personal Finance (18 wks) + Economics (18 wks) semester pair (both halves required; MEDIUM confidence) · SCED 04026 + 12059 — IB Economics + IB Business Management (IB Diploma students only, EPF SOL incorporated; HIGH confidence) · SCED 02003 / VA CTE 3120 — Personal Living and Finance (credit-accommodation path; the two documents use different numbers for the same course; MEDIUM confidence) · VA CTE 6120 — Economics and Personal Finance (parallel CTE numbering, maps to SCED 19262; relevant for Perkins V; MEDIUM confidence)doe.virginia.gov

Full citation

VDOE Board-approved course guidance (Aug 28, 2025); Virginia Active SCED Codes v12 (March 3, 2026) supersedes and must be checked before state reporting

Standards framework

Economics and Personal Finance Standards of Learning, adopted 2019 (published as a Word document; internal structure not yet machine-verified)doe.virginia.gov

Full citation

VDOE, EPF Standards of Learning — Adopted 2019. The Board's 'Economics Education and Financial Literacy Objectives' (April 26, 2006) is a separate document, not a prior version

Funding a district may cite

Perkins V (VDOE-administered) — EPF is published as a CTE course in the Finance career cluster (VA course 6120 / SCED 19262) by Virginia's CTE Resource Center, VDOE's CTE curriculum contractor.doe.virginia.gov

Full citation

VDOE Perkins V program page; CTE Resource Center course listing

Not yet verified · 2

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

• Who may teach it
• State agency contact

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 Virginia