Board hears how recent state laws require new classes, staff and spending for financial literacy and computer science

Norfolk Public Schools administrators told the board that two recent state laws — the Financial Literacy Act and the Computer Science and Technology Education Act (LB 1112) — have become graduation and K–8 instructional requirements that the district must implement, and that both imposed costs not covered by state appropriations.

"We like to refer to these as unfunded mandates because at the time that they were passed and signed into law there were no funds attached to them," Jared Oswald, director of teaching and learning, told the board. He said the district had to spend money to meet both laws.

Under the Financial Literacy Act, students must earn five credit hours of financial literacy instruction to graduate; the first graduating class to meet that requirement was the class of 2024. The district added personal finance to the required course list at the high school and expanded financial literacy instruction across K–8 through economics standards, STEAM coursework and exploratory business…