PFL Licensing

Teacher Licensing

Which licensed teachers can teach PFL?
As there is no personal financial literacy license, questions sometimes arise as to what license is required to teach these courses. The answer to this question depends on the personal financial literacy standards adopted by the school district. If the district adopted the Wisconsin Standards for Personal Financial Literacy and the course is built using these standards, then teachers holding licenses to teach social studies¹, family and consumer sciences, or business and information technology are qualified to teach because of the connection between their standards.

In reporting staff assignments in WISEstaff, the department requires school districts to report the subject area under which the personal financial literacy course is being taught. The license holder must possess the appropriate license to teach in that subject area. If the educator does not hold the appropriate license, a school district should work with the educator to obtain a license in the appropriate subject area. Educators who already hold a Tier II license or higher may be eligible to add-on a license via a content test, consider a three-year license with stipulations (district-sponsored) pathway to licensure, or consider any of the options available to previously unlicensed educators (see licensing bulletin).

For more information on licensing, including options available to members of the public interested in teaching PFL, see this licensing bulletin.

¹ This includes the new social studies license (2700) and social studies licenses prior to the repeal and recreation of PI 34 in 2018 (1710 - economics, 1701 – broadfield social studies, and 1700 – social studies).

Questions