New law requires Kentucky high school students to take financial literacy course before graduation

FRANKFORT, Ky. – A new requirement for Kentucky high school students was signed into law late last month by Gov. Andy Beshear, starting with ninth graders entering high school in the 2026-27 school year and after to pass a financial literacy course during their 11th or 12th grade years to graduate.

House Bill 25, sponsored by local state Rep. Michael Meredith, passed the House and Senate unanimously and was signed by Beshear on March 24. While Kentucky students are already required to pass a financial literacy test or program to graduate, school officials are now hoping this will them expand the financial literacy opportunities for their students.

“What happened with this new House bill is that we took away a couple of the alternatives, and now students have to take a full course in financial literacy. And so, we’ve had courses in our career, tech ed programs. We’ve had, some courses in our math programs. And so, hopefully we’ll be able to expand into some other curriculum areas to be able to hit that financial literacy component,” said Daryl Woods, director of secondary instruction for Warren County Public Schools.

Financial literacy can be challenging for students, from balancing a budget to understanding student loans. WCPS says that they have run a few different curriculums offering different opportunities to students to learn about financial literacy requirements.

“We’ve run a number of different programs, whether it comes through one of our financial partners, and we have several banks that have donated curriculum. We’ve used some of the Dave Ramsey curriculum. We’ve used some other curriculum along the way. So students have multiple opportunities to learn about budgeting and to learn about spending,” said Woods.

The law will start when students who are currently in the seventh will enter their freshman year.