A district roadmap for California's Financial Literacy mandate: lessons from LAUSD. Main takeaways. * District leaders are preparing for California's personal finance mandate with a focus on teacher readiness, implementation, long-term support, and curriculum. * Successful implementation starts before the course launches, with pilot programs, professional learning, and clear instructional guidance. * LAUSD evaluated multiple providers and selected Everfi based on standards alignment, educator support, and classroom readiness. * Financial literacy scales fastest when districts integrate it into existing programs, courses, and student learning opportunities. * LAUSD's experience shows that early planning can turn a state requirement into a meaningful opportunity for students and educators. Table of contents: Beginning in the 2027-28 school year, every California district has to offer a standalone personal finance course. For district leaders, the question isn't whether to prepare anymore - it's how. Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second-largest district, is already answering that question. While preparing for the new requirement, LAUSD selected Everfi as its primary personal finance resource and started building a plan that goes well past picking a curriculum: standards alignment, educator training, a phased rollout, and ongoing support. As district administrators already know, curriculum decisions are just the starting point. Getting ready for this mandate means helping teachers build confidence, lining up instruction with state requirements, and creating a plan that holds up over time. Here's how LAUSD approached that work, and what it means for other districts gearing up for 2027-28. Why California districts are focusing on more than curriculum. Teachers bring real expertise in economics, business, or social studies, but most have never taught credit, investing, taxes, insurance, or college financing before. Getting students ready means getting educators ready first. Any curriculum selected must include resources to build the knowledge, skills, and confidence of the teachers. This could be in the form of professional development, required reading, or bite-sized personal finance lessons aligned to the mandate. District leaders are also determining what a semester-long personal finance course actually looks like in practice and how they launch it the same way across every school. LAUSD took these all into account as it got ready for the mandate - and its approach offers a useful starting point for any district. Why LAUSD selected Everfi. When LAUSD started evaluating personal finance options, the district wasn't just shopping for a curriculum. It was looking for a partner that could turn a state mandate into something teachers and students could use and benefit from. LAUSD ran a full evaluation process and reviewed multiple providers before choosing Everfi as its primary resource - one of the first California districts to complete that process ahead of the mandate. Alignment came first. California's personal finance requirements cover a lot of ground: banking, budgeting, employment, taxes, credit, investing, insurance, consumer protection, financing higher education and more. LAUSD needed a resource that mapped cleanly to all thirteen topic areas. Everfi's California Financial Literacy Collection provided administrators with a quick way to confirm alignment. Readiness mattered just as much. LAUSD didn't want teachers building a course from scratch, so Everfi provided a semester-long, California-aligned unit guide, paired with teacher materials, assessments, rubrics, and student activities - a toolkit teachers could pick up and use. Each Everfi resource is designed to be turnkey so educators can spend less planning and grading and more time teaching. And because many teachers would be teaching this content for the first time, LAUSD was thrilled that Everfi provided regular professional development, responsive tech support, and access to Everfi's Achieve resource. Achieve is a free comprehensive resource for adult personal finance education. Aligned to the very topics that the personal finance mandate requires, Achieve provides teachers with bite-sized micro-lessons that provide teachers with the skills and confidence needed to teach financial literacy. "LAUSD has long recognized financial literacy as an essential life skill. Our goal is to ensure every student graduates with the knowledge and confidence to make informed financial decisions." - Andrés Chait, Superintendent, LAUSD From adoption to implementation. Choosing a curriculum was the easy part. For LAUSD, the real work started with putting it into practice. The district launched a pilot in 15 high schools, giving teachers a chance to test the materials, ask questions, and build confidence before a wider rollout. Everfi ran initial training sessions for participating teachers, with more training planned throughout the school year. At the center of the program is the California Standards Alignment and Unit Guide: an eight-unit, semester-long course mapped directly to California's required topics, including banking, budgeting, employment, taxes, credit, investing, insurance, consumer protection, and higher education financing. Teachers can easily adapt lessons to their students without having to start from a blank page. The semester-long course also includes a capstone project where students build a financial life plan for their own future - exploring career paths, weighing education costs against expected earnings, and thinking through return on investment before they graduate. None of this is a one-time rollout. LAUSD and Everfi meet regularly to review usage, share implementation updates, and pass along resources through district channels - a standing check-in, not a box that got checked once. Put together, district leaders point to four things that made implementation easier: * Standards alignment * Professional learning * Turnkey instructional materials * Ongoing support. Evidence of scale and growth. LAUSD's work is still in progress, but the early numbers show real traction. During the 2025-26 school year, LAUSD had over 60,000 student enrollments in Everfi's financial literacy resources - up from over 40,000 student enrollments the year before. That's roughly a 50% jump in students. The growth isn't limited to regular classrooms, either. LAUSD has folded financial literacy into Winter Academy, summer learning, enrichment programs, CTE pathways, and economics courses, meeting students in places they're already showing up instead of asking them to opt into something new. The takeaway for other districts: the fastest way to scale financial education usually isn't a brand-new initiative. It's finding the programs you already run and building financial literacy into them. Lessons for districts preparing for the mandate. LAUSD's rollout offers four lessons worth stealing. Start educator readiness early. LAUSD trained teachers in its pilot schools before asking them to teach a single lesson - and that's the model it's expanding to additional schools next. Build around standards, not just content. The district's unit guide maps every lesson directly to California's required topics, so teachers spend their time teaching instead of decoding what's required. Plan for more than curriculum adoption. Training, assessments, and regular check-ins have mattered as much to LAUSD's rollout as the course material itself. Use what you already run. LAUSD didn't wait for the standalone course to start teaching financial literacy - it built the subject into Winter Academy, summer school, CTE, and economics classes it already had in place. Turning a mandate into a meaningful student opportunity. California's personal finance requirement is a real lift for districts. LAUSD's experience shows what a well-planned rollout can look like: a pilot in 15 schools, a unit guide built around state standards, and a program that's already reaching tens of thousands more students than it did a year ago. Districts that start this planning now, the way LAUSD did, will be in the best position to make the 2027-28 deadline a non-event instead of a scramble. If you're starting to plan for your own district, California-aligned resources, implementation support, and educator professional learning are already available - you don't have to build this from scratch. Free for all school districts. Thanks to partners, EVERFI provide its digital platform, training, and support at no cost. See why 3 out of 5 districts partner with Everfi.

M&T Bank, Buffalo Bills launch financial literacy program for WNY students. M&T Bank, the Buffalo Bills and EVERFI launched a new financial literacy program for students across WNY, starting with more than 100 students at P.S. 37 Futures Prep School in Buffalo. Posted 3:35 PM, Oct 06, 2026 Hello! I'm Althea Castro de la Mata and I'm covering the City of Buffalo for 7 News WKBW. If you have a story idea, please email me at [email protected] BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) - On Tuesday, M&T Bank, the Buffalo Bills and EVERFI launched a new financial literacy program for students across Western New York, starting with more than 100 students at P.S. 37 Futures Prep School in Buffalo. The Financial Literacy Playbook is designed to expand access to financial education for students in grades four through six. The program gives educators free access to an interactive digital curriculum focused on topics such as spending, needs versus wants, budgeting and planning for the future. For fifth-grader Carter Johnson, the lessons are skills he can use beyond the classroom. "Save money," Johnson said, explaining what he has learned. "My dad taught me how to do that spend money and save money." WATCH: M&T Bank, Buffalo Bills launch financial literacy program for WNY students. The program is designed to help students understand how everyday financial decisions can affect their future. "They are going to focus on what does it mean when you spend, what is a need and a want, what is a budget and what does it mean to plan money for your future," said Tracy Woodrow, WNY regional president for M&T Bank. Woodrow said students in fourth through sixth grades are at an important age for learning about financial responsibility. "We focus on grades four through six because we think it is kind of prime time," Woodrow said. "They are old enough to understand money, but they are still young enough to be learning." The launch also brought a Buffalo Bills connection into the classroom, with Bills player Bradley Chubb speaking to students during a school-wide event. Chubb encouraged students to think about their goals and the different paths they can take to build their futures. "Having those strategic conversations and understanding what my goals are and what my goals are for the future," Chubb said. Chubb also reminded students that success can take many forms and encouraged them to take ownership of their futures. "Kids have different avenues that they can choose from," Chubb said. "Not everybody is going to be a successful football player. You might kill it on the entrepreneurship side, so just giving guys multiple avenues and letting them have full responsibility of their future." The Financial Literacy Playbook will be available to educators across Western New York at no cost, giving more students access to financial education and tools they can use to make informed decisions about money. A voice for everyone. WKBW want to hear what's going on in your community. Share your voice and hear from your neighbors.

Texas becomes first state to pair financial education with new wealth-building opportunities for every student. Aug 26, 2026, 08:30 ET Through a first-of-its-kind partnership, Invest America and Everfi bring financial education and understanding of 530A Trump Accounts to schools statewide, helping students and families build long-term financial success WASHINGTON, Aug. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - As a new generation of saving and wealth-building opportunities begins reaching American families, Invest America and Everfi today announced the first statewide initiative designed to ensure students and families have the knowledge and awareness to use them effectively. Beginning in the 2026-27 school year, every elementary, middle, and high school across Texas will have access to financial education resources and information about new savings opportunities designed to help young people build the knowledge, skills, and confidence to make informed financial decisions. In addition to financial education, students and families will receive information about new 530A Trump Accounts, including how these accounts can help create opportunities for long-term saving and wealth building. Every American child age 0-17 can claim this federally-established investment account, powered by the U.S. Treasury. Children born in 2025 or later receive $1,000 from the U.S. Treasury to start. For eligible children born between 2016 and 2024, Michael and Susan Dell have committed $6.25 billion through their charitable funds to seed the first 25 million activated accounts with $250 each. Families can check eligibility for their child's account at investamerica.org/dell. "Every child deserves the chance to build a strong financial future, and that starts with making sure families understand the opportunities available to them," said Matt Lira, Executive Director, Invest America. "By bringing financial education into classrooms across Texas, we're helping ensure that new opportunities to save and build wealth don't just exist on paper but actually reach the students and families who stand to benefit most." Through the initiative, students will have the opportunity to build financial knowledge and wealth-building skills matched to their grade level by completing financial education programs from Everfi. Everfi's elementary school curriculum introduces students to foundational financial concepts such as earning, spending, saving, and distinguishing between needs and wants. In the middle school curriculum, students build practical money management skills through budgeting, saving, and financial goal setting. During the high school courses, students learn to apply these concepts to real-world financial decisions involving investing, credit, insurance, debt management, and long-term financial planning. Invest America selected Everfi as its primary provider of in-school financial education for this effort. Through this partnership, educators across Texas will gain access to engaging, age-appropriate resources that help students build financial knowledge and confidence at every stage of learning, from elementary school through high school. In the 2025-26 school year, Everfi reached more than 6.7 million student learners across 7,000 school districts, making it one of the largest financial education providers in the country. This scale, combined with Everfi's research-backed approach to learning and proven ability to activate and support schools nationwide, positions the organization to help bring the initiative to classrooms across Texas and, over time, support the expansion of similar efforts nationwide. "Invest America is leading the way by ensuring every student and family across Texas understands this opportunity and how to act on it," said Ray Martinez, CEO, Everfi. "New financial opportunities only create lasting impact when families understand how to use them. By pairing those opportunities with financial education designed to build knowledge, confidence, and action, this initiative helps students and families turn access into long-term financial success. We're proud to help bring that vision to life statewide." Together, Invest America and Everfi are working to ensure that every student in Texas has the education and resources to understand new opportunities and build lasting financial confidence. The initiative reflects a shared belief that financial opportunity should be paired with the knowledge to use it, and that schools are one of the most powerful places to make that connection. About Invest America Invest America is a national initiative focused on expanding access to long-term savings and investment opportunities for American families. By working with businesses, philanthropists, financial institutions, and community leaders, Invest America helps connect families to investment accounts and resources designed to support financial opportunity and wealth building for future generations. To learn more, visit InvestAmerica.org. About Everfi Since 2008, Everfi has connected businesses to communities by providing essential education that builds trust and drives measurable impact. Using digital and offline resources, the company delivers personal finance and life skills education to millions of learners annually in both K-12 schools and broader communities. Today, hundreds of organizations, including financial institutions, professional sports leagues, and healthcare systems, rely on Everfi to deliver measurable outcomes that benefit learners and drive business impact. To learn more about Everfi, please visit everfi.com or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or X/Twitter @Everfi. SOURCE Everfi