When Kentucky’s high school freshmen start school in the 2020-21 school year, they’ll be expected to complete a new financial literacy course or program to graduate.

“I think it’s imperative for student success,” said Drew Martin, president of Junior Achievement of South Central Kentucky.

Financial literacy education is one of the nonprofit’s core priorities, and Martin said the new mandate could be a growth opportunity for Junior Achievement. Whether students go directly into the workforce or college after high school, they’ll need money management skills, he said.

“One needs to know how to budget, one needs to understand the importance of loans and taking those out … that’s applicable to just about anything we do in life,” he said.

A new law passed by the General Assembly in the spring doesn’t require a specific course to be offered, only that “courses or programs that meet the financial literacy standards” be a requirement for high school graduation.

Under the law, local schools would determine curricula for how they would comply with overall standards under development by the Kentucky Department of Education.

“They will go out for public comment probably in February,” said Pamela Moore, with the department’s Office for Career and Technical Education.

Moore added that work developing the standards will continue over the summer with the hope of getting them to the Kentucky Board of Education for a first reading in August and possible approval in October of next year.

The standards are being developed by a business and education advisory panel and a standards revision and writing committee, according to Kentucky Teacher, a publication of the Kentucky Department of Education.

While students may have already been exposed to financial literacy through business career pathways and general economic concepts through existing social studies standards, state officials said Kentucky needs to go further.

“It is a really strong need within our state,” said Teresa Rogers, a consultant with the Office of Career and Technical Education.

“This is solely focused on preparing those students to make sound financial decisions,” she said.