The Financial Education Roadmap Parents Are Asking For
What should students know about money before they graduate from high school? Parents have a clear answer: more than the basics. Everfi’s 2026 Parent Sentiment Study, based on a national survey of 750 parents of students in grades 1 through 12, finds that 88% believe personal finance should be required for high school graduation, and 87% say it deserves the same priority as reading, math, and science. But there’s a gap between what parents want and what students are actually learning.
Instruction tends to focus on basics like saving and budgeting, while the skills that build long-term wealth, including investing, credit, and planning for the future, are taught far less often. The opportunity is clear: financial education needs a roadmap that grows with students, starting with foundational habits and building toward the real-world decisions they’ll face as young adults.
Start with the Foundations: Saving and Budgeting
For students who have received financial education, saving and budgeting are the most common topics.
- 55% of parents say their child has learned about saving
- 53% say their child has learned about budgeting
These foundational skills matter. Learning how to set a financial goal, understand income and expenses, and build a habit of saving gives students an important starting point. But financial capability requires more than knowing how to save. As students get older, their decisions become more complicated. They may earn their first paycheck, open a bank account, use a credit card, pay for college, sign a lease, or begin thinking about investing.
Build from Basic Money Skills to Real-World Financial Decisions
The research shows that instruction becomes less common as financial topics become more complex. Among parents whose children have received financial education:
- 36% say their child has learned about credit cards
- 34% say their child has learned about investing
- 27% say their child has learned about taxes
- 24% say their child has learned about entrepreneurship
- 16% say their child has learned about retirement planning
These are the skills that turn saving into wealth building. Investing, in particular, is where money grows over time, yet only about a third of students are learning it, just as new opportunities are making it more relevant than ever for the next generation.
The result is a potential readiness gap. A student may graduate knowing how to create a budget but have little experience understanding credit, or they know why saving matters without knowing how investing can help money grow over time. These aren’t abstract concepts. They are decisions students may encounter within their first few years of adulthood. The goal of financial education shouldn’t simply be to teach more topics. It should be to teach the right skills at the right time and give students opportunities to apply them.
The Roadmap Needs to Reach Every Student
There is another challenge behind the progression gap: access. Only 61% of parents say their child has received financial education at all. That means nearly four in 10 say their child has not, even as 88% believe it should be required for high school graduation.
The gap isn’t just about what students learn. It’s about whether they have the opportunity to learn it in the first place. A comprehensive roadmap can help address both challenges by creating a clearer progression of knowledge and skills across grade levels, so students begin with foundational concepts and gradually build toward the more complex decisions they’ll encounter after high school.
Parents See Financial Education as a Shared Responsibility
Parents don’t expect schools and families to solve the financial education gap alone. The study reveals different views about who is responsible for teaching financial skills:
- 47% say families are completely responsible for teaching financial skills
- 41% say teachers and schools are completely responsible
- 64% say it is appropriate for financial education to be privately funded
- 76% believe financial institutions have a responsibility to give back to the communities they serve
Together, these findings point to a broader opportunity for collaboration. Schools play a critical role in giving students equitable access to financial education. Families reinforce those lessons through everyday financial conversations. Community organizations and financial institutions can add resources and real-world opportunities to apply what students are learning. The goal isn’t to place financial education on one group’s shoulders. It’s to make sure students encounter it consistently, wherever they learn.
Financial Education Builds Trust
Parents see a clear payoff when financial institutions support financial education. 79% say they would trust a financial institution more if it provided it. These institutions have the expertise, resources, and direct connection to the financial decisions students will eventually face. When they use those resources to help students build financial knowledge, trust becomes a natural byproduct of that investment.
Download the full Parent Sentiment Report to explore the complete findings, including parent attitudes toward financial education, student access trends, instructional priorities, and perspectives on the role of financial institutions in helping expand access to financial education.
