MADISON, Wis. — A new law will require all Wisconsin high school students take a financial literacy class to graduate.

Wisconsin Act 60 was signed into law in Dec. 2023. Starting for the class of 2028, students will need half a credit of a financial literacy course to graduate high school.

Sacia Wheeler teaches personal finance and accounting at Memorial High School in Madison, Wis. One recent Thursday, her students were learning about health care costs. When she told them the average cost of an overnight hospital stay is over $11,000, they booed and groaned.

She said her goal is to teach students what to expect before adulthood, instead of learning it the hard way. Wheeler took a similar class when she was in high school.

“I think it was just called basic business,” she said. “When I was in high school, I loved my business classes. I worked at a bank in high school.”

They cover things like budgeting, debt, loans, insurance and general cost-of-living information.

The Madison Metropolitan School District already implemented its own financial literacy graduation requirement. Wheeler is hopeful bringing it statewide will have a positive impact on students.

“With this requirement, it’s going to give them the opportunity to learn things they’ll need for their financial future while they’re still in high school,” Wheeler said.

She said she often sees the payoff in her students and their families.

“A parent will come up to me and say, ‘Hey, we just opened up a Roth IRA for our child because they said you were talking about it in class,’“ she said.

The half-credit financial literacy requirement will go into effect for Wisconsin students in the class of 2028.