With less than a year to go before the requirement goes into effect, Joshua Mitton, our Chief Program Officer, is breaking down everything educators need to know now.

What does AB 2927 require?

On June 29, 2024, Governor Newsom signed AB 2927, adding a standalone, one-semester course in personal finance to California’s high school graduation requirements. The course is not grade specific and may be offered at any point in grades 9-12, but it must stand on its own; it may not be combined with any other course.

When does the graduation requirement go into full effect?

The legislation specifies that students graduating in the 2030-31 school year must take the one-semester, standalone personal finance course in order to graduate. The law also mandates that districts and charter schools must begin offering the course (at least one section) beginning in the 2027-28 school year.

What are the 13 required topics?

The course must include, but is not limited to, the following topics:

1. Fundamentals of banking for personal use, including savings and checking and managing to minimize fees.
2. Principles of budgeting for independent living.
3. Employment and understanding factors that affect net income, including the topics described in subdivision (a) of EC Section 49110.5.
4. Uses and effects of credit, including managing credit scores and the relation of debt and interest to credit.
5. Uses and costs of loans, including student loans, as well as policies that provide student loan forgiveness.
6. Types and costs of insurance, including home, auto, health, and life insurance.
7. Impacts of the tax system, including its impact on personal income, the process to file taxes, and how to read tax forms and pay stubs.
8. Principles of investing and building wealth, including investment alternatives to build financial security, such as tax-advantaged investments (pensions, 401(k) plans, and IRAs) as well as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and index funds.
9. Enhancing consumer protection skills by raising awareness of common scams and frauds and preventing identity theft.
10. Identifying means to finance college, workforce education, low-cost community college options, and other career technical educational pathways or apprenticeships, including scholarships, merit aid, and student loans.
11. Understanding how psychology can impact one’s financial well-being.
12. Charitable giving.
13. Other topics that are directly and specifically relevant to personal finance.

Are there California personal finance standards?

The legislation provides content guidance in the form of the 13 topics above, but it does not itself establish standards, nor does it call for the creation of standards. The state Personal Finance Curriculum Guide references Common Core State Standards across several disciplines and the National Standards for Personal Finance Education, and it translates the 13 required topics and these collective standards into student learning outcomes.

What grade does the course fall into?

The legislation does not specify a grade level. The state Curriculum Guide offers guidance on this, including suggestions for courses that pair well with the one-semester personal finance course at different points in a student’s high school sequence.

Can this course be combined with another course?

No. The legislation is clear that the course must be a one-semester, standalone course (it may be expanded to a full year, but it may not be a hybrid or cross-listed course with any other subject). The state Curriculum Guide does encourage the organic inclusion of fundamental economics concepts related to decision-making where they enhance the personal finance content, but that is enrichment within the course, not a combination of subjects.

Do students still have to take an economics course?

On June 27, 2025, Governor Newsom signed an amendment providing that “a local educational agency may exempt a pupil who completes a separate, stand-alone one-semester course in personal finance, that is not combined with any other course, from the requirement to complete a one-semester course in economics.” This exemption is voluntary and not automatic; the decision rests with each district. The state Curriculum Guide urges districts to weigh the importance of economics carefully before exercising this option. What I encourage educators to remember is that so much of personal finance is applied economics.

How does this new course impact A-G requirements for students?

A-G requirements are generally aligned with the state graduation requirements, but they are not the same thing. A-G requirements are the minimum course pattern for freshman admission to UC and CSU campuses, and a course only counts toward A-G if it has been submitted by the school and approved by the University of California for the school’s A-G course list. Adding personal finance to the graduation requirements does not automatically make any school’s personal finance course A-G approved. Personal finance courses can earn A-G approval, typically in area G (college-preparatory elective), and the state Curriculum Guide strongly recommends that schools submit their course for approval; the guide walks through the submission options in detail.

Who can teach the course?

Teachers who hold a California credential in Social Science, Business, Mathematics, or Home Economics are authorized to teach the course.

What should teachers do to prepare?

Start with the state Personal Finance Curriculum Guide, and connect with the administrators and curriculum leads in your district to help shape how the requirement is implemented locally. Teachers may also consider professional learning opportunities from the many reputable organizations working in personal finance education.

What state resources are available to support implementation?

The State Board of Education adopted a Personal Finance Curriculum Guide on March 11, 2026, as required under AB 2927. The guide is not a course outline or a prescribed way to teach; it was developed to support educators, administrators, curriculum specialists, and district leaders as they implement the new requirement. It remains up to each district to determine how much time to dedicate to each required topic and how to present the content in a way that makes sense for their students.

How is CCEE supporting educators and districts?

CCEE is approaching this in multiple ways. We are working directly with districts to identify best practices for implementation, both around the course itself and the professional learning that supports it. We are also providing direct-to-teacher programming, including a Personal Finance Institute covering all 13 required topics; registration is now open for the first cohort that will be at the end of August. Additionally, CCEE will publish the California Personal Finance Instructional Toolkit (CAPFIT), which includes a pacing guide organizing existing high-quality lessons into an ordered instructional framework, along with a companion teacher guide that helps teachers easily adapt the plan to their own situation.

To receive our programs and resources directly, sign-up for our newsletter. If you would like us to bring a program to your school or district, email contact@ccee.org.

The post Preparing high school students for personal finance success appeared first on The California Council on Economic Education (CCEE).

As the son of parents who immigrated from Tijuana, Mexico, and as a former public school teacher and principal, I have seen firsthand how education can transform the trajectory of a life.

That belief brought me to the California Council on Economic Education (CCEE), and it continues to ground me as California prepares for AB 2927, which requires districts to offer a stand-alone personal finance course starting in the 2027-28 school year, becoming a graduation requirement for the class of 2030-31.

For nearly 70 years, CCEE has shaped economics and financial literacy education across our state by serving educators, young people and families. This moment calls on us to build on that legacy while evolving to meet the needs of a changing world.

From day one, I committed myself to listening and learning.

I have heard from:

• District and county leaders as well as educators preparing for California’s new personal finance requirement
• Community leaders expanding opportunity for young people and families
• Funders and partners investing in long-term economic mobility and resilience
• Board members, staff and supporters deeply committed to our mission

One theme has emerged again and again: we have an opportunity to build a stronger, more connected ecosystem around economic and personal finance education.

There is growing momentum to ensure every young person has access to a strong stand-alone personal finance course in high school. That work is critical, and we must lean in to strong curricular materials and well-equipped educators.

But preparation for that moment doesn’t begin in high school. Young people build economic and financial understanding over time — early concepts of choice, saving and tradeoffs in elementary school; more complex ideas about systems, incentives and decision-making in middle school; applied personal finance in high school, grounded in economic reasoning. These are not separate efforts. They are a single, coherent continuum of learning.

At times, economics and personal finance are treated separately — one focused on money decisions, the other on how economies work. But young people experience them together. Every financial decision exists within a broader economic context. That is why the two must go hand in hand.

And if we are serious about expanding access to both, we must invest in the educators who make that learning possible. A graduation requirement alone does not change lives. Curriculum alone does not change lives. Educators do.

From transitional kindergarten through 12th grade, they help students make sense of the world, think critically, understand systems and make informed decisions. They are the bridge between standards and student success.

At CCEE, our role is not only to support implementation, but to engage, empower and equip educators with the tools, training and community they need. That is what led us to launch two new programs in partnership with Dr. Cheryl A. Ayers, MBA, PhD — a Personal Finance Institute and an Entrepreneurship Institute. The time to act is now.

We also have a responsibility to convene a coalition — educators, school districts, nonprofits, financial institutions, philanthropists, and partners — because preparing young people for the future is shared work.

More than anything, this work is about belief. At CCEE, we believe:

• A young person’s future should not be determined by their zip code
• Knowledge creates agency and resilience, especially in this increasingly complex world
• When young people, educators and families understand both how money works and how economies work, they are better equipped to build the futures they envision

California is entering a pivotal moment as the fourth largest economy in the world. Opportunities are rising, systems are shifting, and the demand for economic and financial literacy has never been greater. Our responsibility is to make sure young people understand not only what to do with money, but the economic forces that shape those decisions. That is where opportunity lives.

We are just getting started — and this work is stronger with you in it. If it resonates, consider making a gift at ccee.org/donate, and stay connected with us in the year ahead at ccee.org.

The post Our CEO’s thoughts on Economic and Financial Education in California appeared first on The California Council on Economic Education (CCEE).

The Online Personal Finance Institute includes the 13 topics required by AB 2927, which will require a semester course for high school students beginning the 2027-2028 school year.

With more than two decades of experience creating and delivering customized professional learning programs, undergraduate and graduate university courses, and curricula in economics, personal finance, and entrepreneurship education, Cheryl A. Ayers, MBA, PhD is the lead professor for the two new institutes we’re offering California educators.

Dr. Ayers has delivered institutes for other states and national organizations and answered a few questions about the programs.

Why should California educators consider enrolling in the upcoming institutes?

It’s easy to make the case for teaching entrepreneurship and personal finance because the current Innovation and Gig Economy requires students to graduate with an entrepreneurial mindset, whether they become entrepreneurs or employees. Financial literacy skills are also workforce readiness skills, and strong personal finance skills are increasingly important in navigating today’s complex financial marketplace.

With regard to the institutes, I don’t think we should expect educators to teach subjects they were not formally prepared to teach. Entrepreneurship and personal finance are two prime examples. Too often, teachers are handed a textbook or turnkey curriculum and expected to learn both the content and the pedagogy while they are already teaching it to students.

Teachers benefit from dedicated time and space to build or refresh their content knowledge and instructional skills beforeentering the classroom. They should also have opportunities to collaborate with peers and adapt resources to meet the unique needs of their students, which serve as ways of processing and applying the material too.

Also important is awarding professional learning or university credit that recognizes teachers’ time, efforts, and commitment to the profession by investing in their own human capital.  When we treat teachers as professionals and provide meaningful learning opportunities upfront, everyone benefits, especially the students they serve.

What makes the institutes different from other professional learning programs?

Studies have found that educators who complete substantial, sustained, collaborative training demonstrate greater confidence and instructional effectiveness, and their students achieve stronger financial literacy outcomes. This is why the institutes are structured as a semester-length program as opposed to a series of isolated webinars.

Vetted by 25 years of experience, the professionally curated multimedia collections of 400+ resources feature the greatest hits in both subjects, saving teachers significant amounts of prep time.  And while there are a lot of resources on the market, particularly for personal finance education, not all resources are created equally.  No one single resource has all the bells and whistles needed to make classroom instruction engaging, accessible, and meaningful.

The institutes were designed to be practical and applied. Participants simultaneously learn content and instructional best practices by reviewing the classroom-ready resources from a variety of gold standard organizations, including news articles, videos, podcasts, infographics, textbooks, lessons, PowerPoint slides, test banks, and more. Educators are given opportunities to tweak the resources in real time for their unique population of students.

As a result, educators are better prepared to teach the new personal finance semester course required for graduation in California, a semester course in entrepreneurship, as well as integrate both subjects across other courses for multidisciplinary, real-world instructional contexts.

How else do the Institutes support student success?

The institutes are aligned with the U.S. Personal Finance Certification Examination and U.S. Entrepreneurship Certification Examination, equipping teachers with the content knowledge, instructional strategies, curriculum, and resources that they need to teach both subjects while preparing students to pass the exams.

Both exams are approved for three hours of Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) at community colleges nationwide and are currently under review by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

Why have educators continued to register for the Institutes for more than 15 years?

Part of the reason is the experiential and adult learning theories used to design the Institutes. Regular opportunities to collaborate with peers during live Zoom sessions have consistently been among the highest-rated features on Institute evaluations. Educators especially value the co-created, shareable collection of lessons and resources that participants develop together. This collection will be particularly helpful as teachers prepare to teach California’s newly required personal finance course.

Additional opportunities for collaboration are built into both the online assignments and live Zoom sessions, which feature supportive community partners, guest speakers, grassroots entrepreneurs, and small breakout groups for additional co-planning, networking, and cross-state collaboration.

The institutes also utilize a train-the-trainer model in which participants are encouraged to share lessons and resources with colleagues, creating a multiplier effect that maximizes the Institute return on investment.

How do the Institutes accommodate busy teacher schedules?

One of my main priorities is to support teachers and set them up for success, not add to their stress by holding them to rigid deadlines. I started my career as a high school teacher, so I remember just how busy educators are during the school year. The institutes offer flexible completion options that allow participants to enroll as part of a statewide cohort on a set schedule or complete them independently at their own pace.

Registration is now open for both institutes!

Online Personal Finance Institute

Part A:August 24 – October 16

Part B:October 26 – December 11

Cost: $450 for both parts or $225 for one part

Register Now

Online Entrepreneurship Institute

Part A:September 14 – November 16

Part B:January 11 – March 15, 2027

Cost: $550 for both parts or $275 for one part

Register Now

Both Institutes are divided into two parts and may be completed in any order to earn CCEE Certification and professional learning hours or undergraduate/graduate credit. A Certificate of Completion, digital badge, and transcript are included.

The post Introducing Two New CCEE Programs for California Educators appeared first on The California Council on Economic Education (CCEE).

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CCEE 2024-2025 Annual Report

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