Personal financial literacy classes will be mandated for Pennsylvania school districts beginning in the 2026-27 school year, but it’s nothing new for North Allegheny.
The district already offers personal financial literacy as an elective in high school, according to a curriculum review of the Business, Computers and Information Technology (BCIT) department presented at the April 9 school board meeting.
“We’ve been focused on this for quite some time,” said Jordan Langue, a business teacher at the senior high school. “In 2016, we actually added the course, personal financial literacy, as an elective — as an opportunity and an area we saw needed to be addressed in our students.”
Pennsylvania Act 35 of 2023 requires all school districts, beginning in 2026-27, to provide a mandatory course in financial literacy. Students must take the course once during their freshman, sophomore, junior or senior year, Langue said.
“We feel like we’re already one step ahead in the course creation, and now making it mandatory will provide more opportunities for the students,” he said.
The graduating class of 2030 will be the first group to have taken the personal financial literacy as a mandatory course. North Allegheny will require it in either 10th or 11th grades.
A pilot class also is being considered for sophomores, Langue said.
Students will learn about personal finance fundamentals regarding income, spending, saving and investing, risk and insurance, credit management, setting a budget, and setting up banking and checking accounts, said Chris Sestili, a member and instructor in the BCIT department.
“The big thing is we want to expose the kids to things that they’re going to face in the future,” Sestili said.
Course work also will cover business fundamentals and marketing, entrepreneurship, critical thinking, leadership, self-advocacy and career readiness.
The personal financial literacy mandated course can be adapted for students with an individualized education plan, said Langue, adding they already are working with the special education department on the modifications.
As a lead in for the program, beginning next school year, the middle school keyboarding class will include digital literacy, citizenship and wellness, word processing, spreadsheets and presentation skills, according to the presentation.
Middle school students also will be introduced to laptops, as iPads are still used through eighth grade. Financial literacy opportunities might be considered in elementary school, Langue said.
“Everything we’ve done is student-focused. It’s aimed at exposing and preparing the kids for this financial world,” Sestili said.
About 120 students, juniors and seniors, are taking the current elective, Langue said.
“Some of the feedback we get from parents is they loved the conversations they get around the dinner table because those conversations are relevant, and it opens the door to have those conversations with their children,” Langue said.
The BCIT team held a stakeholder town hall in December to discuss financial literacy with community bankers, university professors, financial literacy advocates, former North Allegheny students and parents, local business representatives and various North Allegheny staff members and administrators.
Teachers from the BCIT department attended a principal and student luncheon April 9 hosted by senior Carson Corona, a student representative for the school board. He said the student feedback was very positive.
“I’m very grateful for your drive to include students and that everything is going to be student-focused,” Corona said.
While the course initially is being offered to just sophomores and juniors, school board President Elizabeth Warner suggested the administration could explore offering the course to freshmen. This could help accommodate busy schedules and students who attend A.W. Beattie Career Center but need to fit in the requirement.
Langue said data analysis over the next few years could help shape the program.
“We can look at other ways to make this new requirement work for kids,” Langue said.