DELAWARE

GRADE

Delaware does not mandate the completion of a personal finance course for high school graduation.
However, recent efforts have been made to integrate financial literacy into K-12 curriculum. 2015 Delaware House Joint Resolution No. 4 established a taskforce “to study and make findings and recommendations concerning financial literacy programs and standards, with the intent of developing a regulatory framework that will strengthen financial literacy education in K-12.” The taskforce developed K-12 academic standards in conjunction with the Delaware Department of Education which were approved by the Delaware Board of Education in January 2018. Four standards (Financial Planning and Decision Making; Money Management; Saving and Investing; Risk Protection) are each covered in Grades K-12, broken into K-3, 4-5, 6-8, and 9-12 bands. According to the Delaware Department of Education website, “a timeline for implementation of these standards will be forthcoming once feedback from districts/schools have been collected.”
Delaware receives a “C” for ensuring K-12 financial literacy instruction through its financial literacy standards in grade bands, but not through a high school stand-alone personal finance course. In order to receive an “A,” Delaware must implement grade-specific K-12 financial literacy standards for all students and add a stand-alone personal finance course requirement.