HB 1261 Florida House · 2025 Regular Session

Personal Financial Literacy

HB 1261 updates high school graduation requirements by revising the personal financial literacy course credit mandate. It requires schools to include specific, defined instruction content within the existing half-credit course. This change directly affects high school students in public schools, ensuring they receive standardized financial education covering mandated topics like budgeting or debt management. The bill does not create new funding or programs but clarifies the required curriculum for the existing course.

Issues: ✓ Education

Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 26, 2025 Last action Jun 16, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

H 1261 Filed → H 1261 c1 · 5 edits

MODERATE

The bill was substantially rewritten to change its focus from a broad 'Smart Living' curriculum requiring 8th graders to take a course, to a narrower 'Personal Financial Literacy' requirement. The new version removes the mandate for an 8th-grade course and instead focuses on updating the financial literacy credit requirements for high school diplomas with more specific content standards.

Scope change

The bill's scope was narrowed from requiring an 8th-grade course plus high school diploma requirements to only high school diploma requirements. The Smart Living course mandate for 8th graders was removed entirely.

REQUIREMENT

Removed the requirement that 8th-grade students must complete the Smart Living course to be promoted to high school.

Changed the short title from 'Smart Living Curriculum Act' to 'Smart Living Act' and revised the bill's purpose statement to focus on personal financial literacy rather than a broad life skills curriculum.

Replaced the general 'Smart Living' curriculum requirements with specific, numbered financial literacy topics including banking, budgeting, credit, loans, taxes, and investments.

Added specific instruction requirements for the personal financial literacy credit, including cursive check writing, credit card management, and FAFSA completion.

TIMELINE

Changed the effective date from beginning in the 2026-2027 school year to beginning with students entering grade 9 in the 2023-2024 school year.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Mar 21, 2025

Lower · Passed

Now in Education & Employment Committee

lower

Mar 21, 2025

Committee

Referred to Education & Employment Committee

lower

Mar 19, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reported out of Careers & Workforce Subcommittee

lower

Mar 19, 2025

Lower · Passed

Favorable with CS by Careers & Workforce Subcommittee

lower

Mar 17, 2025

Lower · Passed

PCS added to Careers & Workforce Subcommittee agenda

lower

Mar 5, 2025

Lower · Passed

Now in Careers & Workforce Subcommittee

lower

Mar 5, 2025

Committee

Referred to Education & Employment Committee

lower

Mar 5, 2025

Committee

Referred to PreK-12 Budget Subcommittee

lower

Mar 5, 2025

Committee

Referred to Careers & Workforce Subcommittee

lower

1 primary · 1 co-sponsor