Montana Personal Finance Standards & Graduation Requirements

Montana at a glance

Requirement: Required, embedded in another course
Legislation or authority: ARM 10.55.905 (Montana Board of Public Education graduation-standards rule, approved March 2023); companion House Bill 535 (2023) added a statutory definition of 'financial literacy'
Passed: BPE rule approved March 9-10, 2023; HB 535 signed by Gov. Greg Gianforte on May 3, 2023
Takes effect: Effective July 1, 2025 (delayed from the original July 1, 2023); in effect now
First graduating class affected: Class of 2026
Course length: 0.5 credit in 'economics or financial literacy' (the two are interchangeable), within the state's 20-credit graduation minimum; deliverable via social studies, math, or CTE
State standards: Montana Content Standards for Social Studies (2021), Economics strand; plus Appendix C: Financial Literacy Across the K-12 Mathematics Standards (2025)

What Montana requires

Montana is a local-control state where the Board of Public Education sets minimum graduation standards. ARM 10.55.905 added a 0.5-credit 'economics or financial literacy' line to the state's 20-credit minimum, effective for the Class of 2026. Because economics is an equally valid substitute and multiple departments — social studies, math, or CTE in agriculture, family & consumer sciences, or business — may deliver the content, no single standalone financial-literacy course is mandated statewide.

No standalone 'Financial Literacy Standards' document exists; the relevant state-issued content standards are the Montana Content Standards for Social Studies (2021), whose Economics strand touches personal finance, plus Appendix C of the 2025 Montana Mathematics Content Standards, which organizes financial-literacy content around the six CEE-aligned themes. HB 535 (2023) supplied the statutory definition of 'financial literacy' but did not itself create the mandate — that came from the BPE's rulemaking.

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

How Rapunzl maps to Montana standards

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

Montana strand	CEE pillar	Rapunzl modules
Earning income	Earning Income	Taxes & Income Careers In Finance
Spending	Spending	The Basics Of Banking Buying Your First Home Paying For College
Saving	Saving	Saving Versus Investing The Basics Of Banking
Investing	Investing	Welcome To The Stock Market What Makes A Good Stock?ETFs & Mutual Funds
Managing credit	Managing Credit	The Power & Risks Of Credit How To Make Loans Work For You
Managing risk	Managing Risk	Diversification & Risk Insurance & Retirement

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

Why Montana schools choose Rapunzl

Rapunzl pairs a standards-aligned curriculum with a real-time investment simulator, so students learn personal finance by making real decisions with simulated $10,000 portfolios priced on live market data — not by reading about it. The curriculum scales from a three-week unit to a 28-week year-long course, which means it fits whichever shape Montana's requirement takes in your district.

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 an educator dashboard with grade export and standards crosswalks, English and Spanish materials, screen-reader accessibility, and a free national scholarship competition their students can enter each January.

Montana personal finance requirement FAQ

Montana requires a half-credit of financial literacy OR economics to graduate (Class of 2026 forward), which can be delivered through social studies, math, or CTE coursework rather than a dedicated standalone course.

The requirement is set by ARM 10.55.905 (Montana Board of Public Education graduation-standards rule, approved March 2023); companion House Bill 535 (2023) added a statutory definition of 'financial literacy'.

Takes effect: Effective July 1, 2025 (delayed from the original July 1, 2023); in effect now.

0.5 credit in 'economics or financial literacy' (the two are interchangeable), within the state's 20-credit graduation minimum; deliverable via social studies, math, or CTE.

Montana's requirement is an embedded requirement.

In practice that means the personal finance content lives inside another required course, so every graduate covers it without a separate class on their schedule.

The Class of 2026 is the first graduating class that has to meet it, so earlier classes are not held to the requirement.

Timeline: Effective July 1, 2025 (delayed from the original July 1, 2023); in effect now.

If you are planning a course now, that timeline is the window to have curriculum in place before Montana starts holding students to it.

Montana Content Standards for Social Studies (2021), Economics strand; plus Appendix C: Financial Literacy Across the K-12 Mathematics Standards (2025).

Rapunzl's curriculum is built on the Council for Economic Education's six pillars: Earning Income, Spending, Saving, Investing, Managing Credit, and Managing Risk. Those pillars map to every strand in the framework, which is why the same course can satisfy standards that are worded differently from one state to the next.

Yes. Rapunzl's modules and real-time investing simulator cover the CEE six pillars, and those pillars crosswalk to the Montana strands listed on this page.

Students learn by making real decisions with a simulated $10,000 portfolio priced on live market data, and teachers get an educator dashboard with grade export, materials in English and Spanish, and screen-reader accessibility.

Request a demo and we'll send the Montana standards crosswalk along with classroom access.