What's happening
This bill requires all New York public high schools to provide comprehensive financial education to students in grades nine through twelve.
Why it matters
Empowering Students for Real-World Success. By ensuring all high schoolers receive comprehensive instruction in practical financial skills—such as budgeting, managing debt, evaluating investments, and understanding taxes—the bill aims to better prepare young adults for independent life and economic decision-making.
Reducing Long-Term Inequality and Financial Pitfalls. Early exposure to key financial concepts (like credit, insurance, and retirement planning) can help close knowledge gaps that often contribute to cycles of debt, predatory lending, and limited wealth-building opportunities, particularly for students from low-income backgrounds.
Encouraging Local Adaptation and Innovation. While setting statewide minimum standards, the bill allows (and even encourages) local school districts to develop and expand additional courses, supporting curricula that are tailored to the specific needs and contexts of their student populations.
State-Level Support for Educators. The bill requires the state education commissioner to provide localized assistance for curriculum development, helping ensure that materials are age-appropriate and accessible—potentially easing the burden on teachers and supporting consistent implementation across diverse districts.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Require High School Financial Classes
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
Senator · Senate District 14
2 Co-sponsors
History
- Referred to education
- Referred to education
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Require High School Financial Classes
In Assembly Committee · Education · Sponsor Sam Berger
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
95
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE (Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
Introduced by Sens. COMRIE, HARCKHAM -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to establishing a requirement that instruction in financial education be provided to all pupils in grades nine, ten, eleven or twelve
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 803-c to read as follows:
§ 803-c. Instruction relating to financial education. 1. All pupils in grades nine, ten, eleven or twelve in all public schools in the state shall receive a course or full unit of instruction in financial education delivered by means of a comprehensive financial literacy program.
2. The requirements of this section may be fulfilled through the finance unit of the required high school economics course or the continuation of financial management courses currently being taught in public secondary schools. Additional courses are encouraged to be developed and approved at the local level.
3. The board of education or trustees of the school district is charged with developing and maintaining a financial literacy program for secondary school pupils that shall include, but not be limited to, instruction in the following:
a. recognizing the relationship between financial planning and attaining financial goals;
b. opening and maintaining banking and checking accounts and assessing the quality of banking services;
c. developing a personal budget;
d. analyzing spending, credit purchasing, credit scoring, and managing debt, including retail and credit card debt;
e. calculating interest rates by various methods;
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00709-01-5
f. evaluating borrowing options;
g. assessing the implications of an inheritance;
h. computing state and federal income taxes, understanding net versus gross income and required tax deductions;
i. analyzing local tax assessments;
j. assessing different types of investments and how investments help to achieve personal goals;
k. recognizing how investments help to achieve financial goals throughout the stages of an individual's life;
l. analyzing state and federal laws concerning finance;
m. recognizing the basic principles of personal insurance policies;
n. analyzing regulatory agencies and their role;
o. recognizing the importance of planning for retirement and analyzing retirement planning options; and
p. recognizing the importance of insurance as an essential element of financial security.
4. The commissioner shall provide assistance at the local level to aid in the development of curricula for courses of study which shall be age appropriate and developed according to the needs and abilities of pupils in grades nine, ten, eleven or twelve.
§ 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it shall have become a law.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the education law, in relation to establishing a requirement that instruction in financial education be provided to all pupils in grades nine, ten, eleven or twelve
Purpose or general idea of bill
This bill will require financial literacy instruction to high school students at any time during their high school tenure, developed and maintained by the district's board.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1 Adds a new section 803-b to the education law to require high school students have financial education integrated into their curricula for high school students, including personal finance, budgeting, under- standing income and property tax systems, personal and insurance poli- cies and commercial finance.
Section 2 is the effective date.
Justification
The present times have shown that young adults, more and more, are being required to be more financially independent in their daily lives. By the time they leave high school and go to college, many teens already have a job, pay taxes, have a checking account, a credit card, and some level of debt. At the same time of this expanding responsibility, there has not been an increase in the knowledge about finance issues among these young adults. They may have a checking account and credit card, but do not fully understand the implications of using both, or even the process that these financing mechanisms involve. Often, when asked what a credit card does, many teens respond that the card offers free money with which to make purchases, not realizing that it is actually a loan at a high level of interest. By integrating a more detailed financial education into the high school curricula (either in existing classes or by creat- ing new ones), students will be better equipped to understand how to maintain a personal budget, manage debt, and realize the mechanics and implications of collection and uses of various kinds of taxes.
Amended version
Amended to include information on recognizing the basic information of personal insurance policies
Prior legislative history
2023-2024: S4601 Comrie/A8216A Berger
2021-2022: S5820 Comrie/A731 Rosenthal D
2019-2020: S2542 Comrie/A1357 Rosenthal D
2018: S8198 Comrie/ A9752 Rosenthal D
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it shall have become a law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.