Vermont Personal Finance Standards

Vermont at a glance

Requirement: State standards issued, not required to graduate
Legislation or authority: No PF graduation mandate enacted. VT State Board of Education adopted Jump$tart National Standards (Jan. 17, 2018); Education Quality Standards §§2120.5 & 2123.2 require districts to instruct and assess financial literacy. Act 73 of 2025 directed AOE to recommend new statewide graduation requirements.
Takes effect: EQS financial-literacy instruction/assessment requirement already in effect (locally implemented); a proposed 0.5-credit standalone requirement would, if adopted by the State Board, take effect SY2027-2028
State standards: Jump$tart Coalition's National Standards for K-12 Personal Finance Education (adopted by the VT State Board of Education, Jan. 2018), via The Vermont Framework for Proficiency: Financial Literacy

Personal finance in Vermont

Vermont has no graduation mandate specific to personal finance. It operates under Proficiency-Based Graduation Requirements that let each Supervisory Union/District decide how to deliver content, provided Education Quality Standards §§2120.5/2123.2 are met — financial literacy must be instructed and assessed using the state-adopted Jump$tart standards somewhere in a student's program. In practice this produces wide variation: some districts require a standalone course, others embed it in economics, CTE, or math.

That may change: under Act 73 of 2025, the Agency of Education has recommended a uniform 22.5-credit graduation framework that includes a 0.5-credit standalone Financial Literacy requirement, noting that 76% of Vermont's districts would need to expand current offerings to comply. The State Board of Education must decide on the full package by July 1, 2027, with implementation beginning SY2027-2028 and the Class of 2031 as the first affected cohort if adopted as written.

Last reviewed against official sources on 2026-07-15.

How Rapunzl maps to Vermont standards

Rapunzl's curriculum is built on the Council for Economic Education's six pillars. Here is how they line up with the Vermont framework.

Vermont strand	CEE pillar	Rapunzl modules
Spending and saving	Spending	The Basics Of Banking Buying Your First Home Paying For College
Credit and debt	Managing Credit	The Power & Risks Of Credit How To Make Loans Work For You
Employment and income	Earning Income	Taxes & Income Careers In Finance
Investing	Investing	Welcome To The Stock Market What Makes A Good Stock?ETFs & Mutual Funds
Risk management and insurance	Managing Risk	Diversification & Risk Insurance & Retirement
Financial decision-making	Financial Decision-Making	Financial Statistics Top Investor Strategies

Educators can request a full Vermont standards crosswalk through the Educator Dashboard.

Why Vermont schools choose Rapunzl

Vermont does not require a personal finance course. It is a proficiency-based, local-control state that adopted the national Jump$tart standards and asks districts to teach and assess financial literacy somewhere in a student's program, leaving the shape to each Supervisory Union. In practice that ranges from a standalone course to content embedded in economics or math. Rapunzl fits any of those, with students managing a $10,000 portfolio in a live-market simulator and modules that run as a full course or embedded pieces. A proposed 0.5-credit standalone requirement under Act 73 could arrive for SY2027-28, so building now also gets a district ahead of it.

100,000+students have completed Rapunzl's curriculum
93%average financial literacy scores on national test over past 5 years, 24% above average
31interactive modules that can be customized into a course progression for your classroom
20+hours of gameplay in 2 interactive mini-games alongside our investment simulator and financial calculators

Teachers get a dashboard that exports grades and crosswalks each lesson to Vermont's adopted Jump$tart financial literacy standards, with materials in English and Spanish that work with a screen reader. Rapunzl's January scholarship competition gives students a reason to keep managing their portfolio however a district meets the proficiency.

Vermont personal finance requirement FAQ

Vermont does not require personal finance to graduate; it is a proficiency-based, local-control state that has adopted national PF standards and requires districts to teach and assess them, but leaves course structure to local school boards.

The requirement is set by No PF graduation mandate enacted. VT State Board of Education adopted Jump$tart National Standards (Jan. 17, 2018); Education Quality Standards §§2120.5 & 2123.2 require districts to instruct and assess financial literacy. Act 73 of 2025 directed AOE to recommend new statewide graduation requirements..

Takes effect: EQS financial-literacy instruction/assessment requirement already in effect (locally implemented); a proposed 0.5-credit standalone requirement would, if adopted by the State Board, take effect SY2027-2028.

Jump$tart Coalition's National Standards for K-12 Personal Finance Education (adopted by the VT State Board of Education, Jan. 2018), via The Vermont Framework for Proficiency: Financial Literacy.

Rapunzl is built on the Council for Economic Education's six pillars: earning income, spending, saving, investing, managing credit, and managing risk. Vermont adopted the national Jump$tart standards, which cover the same topics, so the crosswalk above ties each to the modules that teach it.

Yes. Because Vermont is proficiency-based, Rapunzl's modules can carry a standalone course or embed in economics or math, and each still maps to the Jump$tart standards the state adopted.

Students learn by trading a simulated $10,000 in real market conditions, and teachers track progress from a dashboard with grade export, bilingual materials, and screen-reader support.

Ask for a demo and we'll send the Vermont crosswalk along with classroom access so you can meet the proficiency your way, or get ahead of the Act 73 proposal.