When NEFE first began our shift toward serving as the financial education field’s centralizing voice for research and policy in 2020, only five states had enacted laws requiring students to complete a personal finance course to graduate high school. Both NEFE and this handful of states were just beginning a years-long journey toward expanding access to effective financial education.
Since then, tracking states’ adoption of high school financial education graduation requirements has been a key indicator of progress for our field. Six years later, now a total of 29 states have adopted full requirements, reflecting the momentum behind this movement and a greater level of maturity for the financial education field. This moment also offers an opportunity for NEFE and the field to evolve the way we track and understand the actual implementation of these state-level policies.
The Field Has Evolved—Our Understanding of Policy Should Too
Since its inception, the NEFE Policy & Advocacy Team has been responsible for monitoring and reporting on state and federal policy issues that impact the financial education field. Tracking the adoption of high school graduation requirements has been central to our work of championing equal access and quality education for all students. But because it can take three to five years for a state to fully implement a new requirement, NEFE was only able to look at the language each state adopted to understand their intent. As a result, in early 2026, NEFE reported that 30 states had enacted a standalone, full-semester personal finance graduation requirement.
However, as we head into the 2026–2027 school year, 15 states now have fully implemented their graduation requirements, and another seven are on track to complete their implementation efforts within 12 to18 months. This allows us to finally begin comparing each state’s intent—as reflected by the legislative language they adopted—with the results on the ground.
The National Report Card and a New Methodology
Earlier this year, NEFE acquired the National Report Card on State Efforts to Improve Financial Literacy in High Schools from the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College. Since its launch in 2013, the National Report Card has served as one of the field’s most trusted benchmarks for evaluating state-level K-12 policy and has helped drive substantial progress in expanding personal finance education nationwide. Acquisition of the National Report Card also provides NEFE with a unique opportunity to fully align our methodology with a critical field resource.
The National Report Card provides a robust methodology for evaluating the quality of states’ policy language and implementation efforts. Research supporting the National Report Card includes detailed reviews of high school graduation requirements and state academic standards for personal finance education as well as laws, regulations and guidelines that relate to how each state delivers personal finance education in its public high schools.
The 2026 edition of the National Report Card assigns two grades to each state:
- Class of 2026 Grade: reflects the state’s current public policy on personal finance education in public high schools for the graduating class of 2026.
- Projected Grade: reflects the state’s new public policy that has not yet been fully implemented. The projected grade is dated with the year when the new policy is scheduled to be fully implemented or dated “2031” for states without any proposed policy changes. Grades are based on laws and regulations as of May 1, 2026; as of that date, there were no pending policy changes in any state that would take effect after 2031.
One State’s Changed Grade—A More Nuanced Approach to a Maturing Field
Based on this more sophisticated analysis, NEFE identified one state—Rhode Island—where our original policy determination does not align with the realities of the state’s implementation strategy.
While Rhode Island originally earned an “A” grade in the 2023 National Report Card, that edition noted that the state may pursue implementation options that do not ensure every student takes the equivalent of a full-semester personal finance course. Instead, in the years since that report, the state’s guidance went from “requiring” to “ensuring” students must demonstrate proficiency in personal finance concepts either via standalone course, assessment or project.
While this is a substantive requirement, it falls short of ensuring a full course for every student; therefore, the 2026 National Report Card lowers the state’s grade from an “A” to a “B.” This revised grade does not discredit the important work happening in Rhode Island to equip students for the future, but serves as a useful benchmark for state policymakers, researchers, advocates and practitioners as they continue to improve the quality of financial education programs in the state.
It’s important to note that this methodological change, and the resulting adjustment in NEFE’s state count, should not be interpreted as evidence that the financial education movement is losing momentum. In fact, we believe the opposite to be true: that this reflects a maturing of the field and an opportunity to create stronger tools for supporting states and holding them accountable to their commitments. Our hope is that a more nuanced approach to understanding states’ policies will empower the entire financial education field.
Where Does Financial Education Policy Go from Here?
As states continue their work to implement graduation requirements, it is critical that they respect the legislative intent of those requirements by holding districts and schools accountable for offering the full-semester course which research indicates is the most effective way to deliver this instruction.
NEFE has been consistent on this point for many years and, through the National Report Card, we will continue to monitor state implementation efforts with transparency and objectivity. Our goal is not to simply count the states who say they will do this work, but to understand whether students truly have access to the financial education they need as they prepare to navigate an increasingly complex financial ecosystem.
This does mean that state grades are a fluid measurement of progress. The total number of states receiving “A” grades may change as implementation evolves, and these changes will be reflected in future editions of the National Report Card. We expect that some states will strengthen their programs while others may find that additional work is needed to ensure real-world efforts align with legislative intent.
What will not change is NEFE's commitment to advancing effective financial education policy across the country. We will continue to champion high-quality graduation requirements, support effective implementation, promote transparency about where progress is occurring, and highlight where opportunities remain.
Ultimately, success is not measured by how many states pass a financial education policy. Success is measured by whether all students receive the personal finance education they need and deserve.
