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OLR Bill Analysis
SB 1165 (File 257, as amended by Senate "A")*
AN ACT CONCERNING FINANCIAL LITERACY INSTRUCTION.
SUMMARY
This bill adds a half-credit of personal financial management and
financial literacy to the high school graduation requirements beginning
with the graduating class of 2027 (i.e., students currently enrolled in
eighth grade). The bill also adds personal financial management and
financial literacy to the state’s required program of instruction for public
schools.
It also makes completion of a one-credit, mastery-based diploma
assessment (i.e., a “capstone”) an optional, rather than mandatory,
graduation requirement at each board of education’s discretion.
By law, a school board cannot grant a high school diploma unless the
student has completed at least 25 credits total. By making the
completion of one-credit capstone a local option and allowing students
to fulfill the half-credit financial literacy requirement either as a
humanities credit or as an elective credit, the bill reduces the state-
prescribed credit requirements from 22 to 21 credits, thereby increasing
the potential credits available for electives to a range of three to four.
(The exact number of elective credits depends upon the (1) local decision
to require a capstone and (2) student’s decision to count financial
literacy towards the humanities requirement or as an elective.)
In addition to the capstone and financial literacy requirements under
the bill, existing law requires students to fulfill 21 of their 25 credits
required to graduate as follows:
1. nine credits in the humanities, including civics and the arts;
2. nine in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; 2023SB-01165-R01-BA.DOCX
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3. one in physical education and wellness;
4. one in health and safety education, as described in law; and
5. one in world languages (completion of a world language course
in middle school may count).
It also makes technical and conforming changes.
*Senate Amendment “A” (1) makes completion of a one-credit
mastery-based diploma assessment an optional, rather than mandatory,
graduation requirement at each board of education’s discretion and (2)
allows the half-credit in personal financial management and financial
literacy to count towards the nine-credit humanities graduation
requirement or as an elective credit.
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2023, except a conforming change is
effective July 1, 2025.
§§ 2 & 3 — PERSONAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND
FINANCIAL LITERACY
The bill adds personal financial management and financial literacy to
the state’s required program of instruction for public schools. By law,
the required program of study includes, among other subjects, the arts;
language arts, including reading and writing; mathematics; physical
education; science; and social studies, including citizenship, geography,
government, history, Holocaust and genocide awareness, African-
American and Black studies, and Puerto Rican and Latino studies.
By law, the State Board of Education (SBE) must make available
curriculum and materials to help school boards develop their
curriculum, including the required program of instruction. The law also
requires SBE, within available appropriations, to help and encourage
school boards to develop instructional programs for a range of topics,
some of which are included in the required program of instruction and
some of which, such as personal financial management, currently are
not.
Financial Literacy Plan and Definition 2023SB-01165-R01-BA.DOCX
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Current law, unchanged by the bill, allows the State Department of
Education, the Board of Regents for Higher Education, and the UConn
Board of Trustees to, in consultation with the Banking Department,
develop a plan to give each high school student financial literacy
instruction. The plan is not a requirement for school districts but an
option available to them.
The law permitting the plan defines “financial literacy” to include
banking, investing, savings, the handling of personal finance matters,
and the impact of using credit cards and debit cards.
COMMITTEE ACTION
Education Committee
Joint Favorable
Yea 39 Nay 2 (03/10/2023)