Board hears legislative update: financial-literacy bill, FAFSA changes, federal education executive order and local funding risks

GREELEY, Colo. — At Monday’s Greeley-Evans School District 6 work session, district legal counsel and finance staff briefed the school board on a cluster of state and federal developments that could affect district operations and budgets, including a pending financial-literacy requirement, changes to FAFSA, a bill about communication devices in schools and uncertainty from a presidential executive order directing steps to close the U.S. Department of Education.

Nate Fall, the district’s in-house legal counsel, told the board that two new bills had been added to the district’s bill tracker: one on automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and another on dyslexia requirements, and he summarized movement on other measures the district is monitoring. On a high-priority item, he said a financial-literacy proposal has been amended and referred to appropriations and that the current bill text refers to “satisfactory completion of a course on financial literacy as defined by 22-32-135” as a condition of graduation.

Fall said the language is ambiguous about whether the requirement is a standalone course or can be embedded in an existing course and that the State Board of Education will be charged with developing standards and curriculum guidance. “There’s already a statute that includes the financial literacy…