Webinar: Integrating Statewide College Promise Programs and Children’s Savings Accounts
On August 17, 2023, College Promise hosted a webinar to review Building Assets & Aspirations: A Playbook for Integrating Statewide College Promise (CP) Programs & Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs) and explore the benefits and strategies for aligning College Promise programs and CSAs in the pursuit of higher education. College Promise programs provide tuition-free or reduced-cost education, making higher education more accessible to students. Integration of these programs with Children’s Savings Account programs will help families save for education-related expenses, reduce the financial barrier to attending college, and ensure that students have the resources they need to pursue their educational goals.
In November 2021, College Promise published a playbook on the significance of College Promise and Children’s Savings Account (CSAs) integration and shared best practices for successful integration models. In order to better understand how to integrate these programs on a larger scale, College Promise spoke with several influential leaders to gain their insight on how to encourage a more inclusive culture of college enrollment in their individual states. This year’s latest iteration, Building Assets & Aspirations: A Playbook for Integrating Statewide College Promise (CP) Programs & Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs), highlights the pioneering work of the California Child Savings Coalition and the Northern California College Promise Coalition, the Keystone Scholars Program in Pennsylvania, and the Alfond Scholarship Foundation in Maine, in addition to steps that savings initiatives can take to amplify their bearing. This webinar served as a platform where experts could provide insight into their case studies and findings in their respective states.
The first panelist to speak on CP-CSA Integration was Julie Peachey, Deputy State Treasurer, who discussed the impact of the Keystone Scholars Program. This is a universal, at-birth, automatic $100 for every baby born to a PA resident on/after January 1, 2019, or subsequently adopted. She expressed that integrating their CSA program and College Promise programs can help maintain high parental expectations for their child’s future, help children envision their future, and encourage families to contribute to savings as early as possible. During the webinar, Julie stated, "Promise programs could help donors understand the benefit of investing early in students.” Next, Colleen J. Quint, the President and CEO of the Alfond Scholarship Foundation, spoke on behalf of her organization. Maine’s College Promise Program offers free community college, which resulted in a 12% increase in enrollment last fall. The Alfond Scholarship Foundation expressed the need to work together with College Promise to avoid displacement and ensure that students benefit from the full range of available resources. Lastly, Meredith Curry Nuñez, Executive Director of the Northern California College Promise Coalition, spoke on the work that California is doing to integrate these pertinent initiatives into access to higher education for all. She conveyed that with strong support from elected officials, California had 5.9 million students enrolled in more than 10,000 schools located in 977 school districts. The organization believes that relationship management is key to program success. Each expert panelist provided refreshing viewpoints and innovative approaches necessary to integrate these two programs. The webinar closed with an engaging Q&A session where the audience had the opportunity to gain more insight into the efforts necessary to integrate the College Promise programs and Children’s Savings Accounts.
To watch the webinar, please visit this link.
For more information about how you can learn more about Promise-CSA integration or join College Promise-Children’s Savings Account Integration Peer Learning Network, please contact Michelle Cooper at michelle@collegepromise.org.