September 8, 2025 Committee of the Full Board Item 1
Discussion of Legislative Requirements Related to Personal Financial Literacy and Economics
September 8, 2025
COMMITTEE OF THE FULL BOARD: DISCUSSION
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION: NO ACTION
SUMMARY: This item provides an opportunity for the committee to discuss requirements related to personal financial literacy and economics in House Bill (HB) 27, 89th Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2025, and to discuss future rule action needed to implement the requirements of the bill.
STATUTORY AUTHORITY: Texas Education Code (TEC), §§7.102(c)(4), 28.002(a) and (c), and 28.025(b-1), (b-23), and (b-24), as amended and added by HB 27, 89th Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2025.
TEC, §7.102(c)(4), requires the State Board of Education (SBOE) to establish curriculum and graduation requirements.
TEC, §28.002(a), identifies the subjects of the required curriculum.
TEC, §28.002(c), requires the SBOE to identify by rule the essential knowledge and skills of each subject in the required curriculum that all students should be able to demonstrate and that will be used in evaluating instructional materials and addressed on the state assessment instruments.
TEC, §28.025(b-1), as amended by HB 27, 89th Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2025, requires the SBOE to determine by rule specific courses for graduation under the foundation high school program.
TEC, §28.025(b-23), as amended by HB 27, 89th Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2025, requires the Texas Education Agency to develop a list of free, open-source, and publicly available curricula that may be used by a school district to provide a personal financial literacy course that satisfies the social studies graduation requirement in personal financial literacy.
TEC, §28.025(b-24), as added by HB 27, 89th Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2025, requires the SBOE to allow a student to satisfy the graduation requirement for one-half credit in personal financial literacy by completing an advanced placement (AP) course designated by the SBOE as containing substantively similar and rigorous academic content.
The full text of statutory citations can be found in the links above.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND JUSTIFICATION: The 83rd Texas Legislature passed HB 2662, amending TEC, §28.0021, to require school districts and open-enrollment charter schools offering a high school program to provide a one-half credit elective course in personal financial literacy. In 2016, the SBOE adopted the proposed new personal financial literacy course. The course, 19 TAC §113.49, Personal Financial Literacy (One-Half Credit), Adopted 2016, was implemented beginning with the 2016-2017 school year.
In 2021, the 87th Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 1063, amending TEC, §28.025, to add a one-half credit course in personal financial literacy and economics as an option to meet the one-half credit graduation requirement for economics under the Foundation High School Program. SB 1063 required that the SBOE adopt Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for the personal financial literacy and economics course and that the required curriculum for the course allocate two-thirds of the instructional time to personal financial literacy and one-third of instructional time to economics. At its June 2022 meeting, the SBOE adopted TEKS for the new course, §113.76, Personal Financial Literacy and Economics (One-Half Credit), combining personal financial literacy and economics knowledge and skills.
The 89th Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2025, adopted HB 27 to require students to successfully complete a one-half credit personal financial literacy course instead of the one-half credit economics course to satisfy the economics requirement under the Foundation High School Program. The bill also changed the current one-half credit economics course to a one-credit course and permits students to select the third social studies credit required for graduation from economics, world geography, or world history. The bill also added new TEC, §28.025(b-24), requiring the SBOE to allow a student to comply with the personal financial literacy requirement by successfully completing an AP course.
This item provides the opportunity for the committee to discuss the HB 27 requirements related to personal financial literacy and economics and to discuss future rule action needed to implement the bill.
Staff Members Responsible:
Monica Martinez, Associate Commissioner, Standards and Programs
Jessica Snyder, Senior Director, Curriculum Standards and Student Support
Attachment:
Text of 19 TAC Chapter 113, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies, Subchapter C, High School, §113.76, Personal Financial Literacy and Economics (One-Half Credit)