Students attending Mahopac School District will now be required to learn about financial literacy in order to graduate.

The school board voted in favor of the ‘Seal of Financial Literacy’ program Tuesday night.

Every Mahopac graduate must earn the ‘Seal of Financial Literacy’ to receive a diploma, starting in 2028.

“We want kids to wake up every morning doing something they care about, but also doing something that will ensure that they have a financially viable life,” said Mahopac School Board Trustee Tanner McCracken, who led the charge on this program.

Mahopac is now the first school district in New York state to require this program.

Students in grades eight to 12 will now learn personal financial concepts through units of study in core classes.

To graduate, seniors will need to complete a capstone project, based on a realistic post-high school scenario.

“With this class, what it does is it ensures that it’s not just an academic exercise to learn about money, it is about having practical life skills,” said McCracken.

Sullivan Hunter, a current junior says oftentimes high-schoolers are in a bubble and without a financial literacy program, there’s no real way to prepare for the real world.

“You hear all these economic issues in our county and yet you don’t really know how to navigate that and then poof, you turn 18. Now you’re in the real work and now you have to make all these decisions for yourself,” said Sullivan Hunter.

While this isn’t a requirement yet, the district already offers a personal finance elective that hundreds of students are taking. Within the next two years, over 400 students will qualify for the seal.