Activate Your Kindergartener’s NYC Scholarship Account and Start Saving for College Today

This school year, over 65,000 New York City kindergarteners received a down payment towards the future cost of college and career training.

Thanks to the City of New York and NYC Kids RISE’s Save for College Program, 97 percent of all City kindergarteners now have access to their NYC Scholarship Accounts for future college and career training!

The Save for College Program is a scholarship and savings platform for City public school students that has been designed to make future college and career training more accessible—regardless of family income, zip code, or immigration status. Beginning this school year, and every school year going forward, kindergarten students enrolled in City public schools, including participating charter programs, automatically receive NYC Scholarship Accounts with an initial $100 deposit invested into an NY 529 Direct Plan—a low-fee, tax-deferred investment account for New York State residents that can be used to save for higher education expenses.

Families can also receive up to an additional $200 in scholarship awards by taking actions like activating their child’s NYC Scholarship Account online or opening and connecting another separate college and career savings account they own for their child. Communities, businesses, and other institutions are also able to contribute directly to groups of NYC Scholarship Accounts and help build significant assets for public school students in communities across the five boroughs.

In total, over $6.5 million has been invested across 65,000+ scholarship accounts this year.

“We are taking a giant step towards making college and careers more accessible to our students,” said City Schools Chancellor David C. Banks earlier this month. “The money being deposited in accounts today plant the seeds that will instill a sense of financial literacy and open doors for our young people for decades to come.”

In addition to the NYC Scholarship Accounts, the Save for College Program also provides City elementary schools with financial education lessons in the classroom, referrals for one-on-one counseling for families in the City’s Financial Empowerment Centers, and asset-building activities and virtual events for entire families. Local community-based organizations can even integrate the Save for College Program into their own programming to enhance their work, such as by arranging college visits for elementary school students and their families, and incorporating age-appropriate financial literacy instruction into their afterschool programs.

To learn more about the Save for College Program and your child’s NYC Scholarship Account, including activation information, visit NYC Kids RISE’s Save for College Program webpage.

Remember: if your child is currently registered to a kindergarten classroom inside a City public school, your child has automatically been enrolled in the Save for College Program unless you opted them out—you simply need to activate your child’s NYC Scholarship Account to begin tracking your child’s initial $100 investment. However, if you do not wish to participate in the Save for College Program, you may also choose to cancel at any time—speak with staff members at your child’s school for details. Information about future opt-out opportunities will be shared in fall 2022.

On behalf of the NYC Department of Education, we thank our partners at NYC Kids RISE, the Gray Foundation, and the Mayor’s Office for realizing this outstanding investment and savings opportunity for City families!

Banner photo by Yan Krukov. Used under Creative Commons license. Original can be found on Pexels.