Students in the nation’s largest school district will soon have access to banking services at school, a move that school district and city leaders say will help set teenagers up for long-term financial literacy and stronger money management skills.
Outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday announced a new pilot partnership involving 15 of the city’s roughly 500 high schools and 12 banks and financial institutions. The program will introduce in-school banking services for students and their families, offer workshops on responsible money management and banking, and connect students with career opportunities in finance.
The initiative is expected to reach about 350,000 of New York City’s more than 900,000 students by 2030, Adams said.
“If we bring financial services and education directly into schools, we are helping break cycles of inequality, instead of perpetuating them over and over again,” Adams said during a Wednesday morning press conference.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) says school-based financial education can build kids’ confidence in a controlled environment where they can build healthy saving habits and ask questions of trusted adults.
Some districts that have piloted similar programs have set up banking operations in common areas, allowing students to make deposits on designated “banking days,” and to host workshops and lessons, the FDIC says.
Adams said he hopes that allowing students’ families to use services and attend workshops will have a “cascading effect” that benefits the broader community, as well. The 15 schools in the pilot are in neighborhoods that lack widespread access to banks and financial services, Adams said.
“What we’ve learned … is when students learn something, they go home and they empower the family, and that family grows from this experience,” Adams said.
Financial literacy efforts have been growing in schools
New York City’s initiative to bring banking into schools adds to a growing number of districts and states intentionally making personal finance education a part of students’ schooling.
The number of U.S. states committing to improving teenagers’ financial literacy has more than tripled since 2021. Thirty states now require personal finance courses for high school students, according to Next Gen Personal Finance, a nonprofit that provides free resources to educators and advocates for financial literacy education.
Delaware became the 30th state in October, and the New York Board of Regents this week approved a personal finance course requirement for high school students, starting in 2027.
The movement to expand access to personal finance courses is one propelled by statistics showing many Americans lack the know-how to make informed personal finance decisions.
More than one-third of American adults report having more credit card debt than emergency savings; 68% doubt they could cover one month of living expenses if they lost their primary source of income; and 25% report having no trusted source of financial guidance, according to Annuity.org and Bankrate’s 2023 annual emergency savings report.
In New York City, about 7% of residents do not have a bank account, higher than the national rate of about 4%, according to the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.
And teens say they have limited financial knowledge, too, uniquely positioning schools to prepare students with skills they’ll need to navigate adulthood.
Finance knowledge isn’t only important for adulthood
That knowledge isn’t only relevant for adults, though.
About 42% of U.S. teens use TikTok Shop, 39% rely on credit or debit cards, and 33% lean on mobile payments like CashApp and Apple Pay to make personal purchases, according to 2025 data from the American Marketing Association.
Plus, only about one-third of teens ages 13-18 reported saving some money for the future when they have it in a separate 2025 survey conducted by Wakefield Research. Nearly half of the teens in the survey reported being “terrified” that they won’t have enough money to cover their future needs and goals.
Those fears are what New York City officials say they hope in-school banking and financial education will quell over time.
Asked during his press conference if Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani—who won the Nov. 4 election to replace Adams—will continue the new banking program, Adams said his team is creating a transition document for Mamdani’s team, and it is up to Mamdani to decide how to proceed.
“I’m handing off the baton and hoping the next administration will look at what we’ve done, build on it, and bring their own flair to it,” Adams said.
