When a family welcomes a new baby, it’s a time full of excitement, joy and hope. Families are busy enjoying all of the firsts that come along with their new addition… first smiles, first laughs and first steps. And the Pennsylvania Treasury provides your new baby with the first deposit into their education savings account!
Keystone Scholars Helps You Start Saving
Keystone Scholars is a program that invests $100 in your baby’s name to jumpstart their education savings as early as possible. The $100 will grow alongside your child, and it will be ready to use when they turn 18 and choose a path for their future education.
The funds in your child’s Keystone Scholars account can be used to help pay for tuition, fees, room and board, equipment and more at many technical training programs, apprenticeships, community colleges, or four-year colleges and universities.
Keystone Scholars accounts are automatically set up for every baby born to Pennsylvania families in 2019 and after. To activate your child’s account, visit pa529.com/keystone.
Families can also open a PA 529 College and Career Saving Program account to save even more, and link it to their Keystone Scholars account. And if you have a baby born before 2019, you can open a PA 529 account and start saving any time at all. It’s never too early, or too late to start saving for education.
The Bright Future Booster
If you were a WIC participant at the birth of your baby, and they were born between January 1, 2021, and June 30, 2021, they will automatically receive an extra $50 Bright Future Booster deposit. That’s in addition to the $100 Keystone Scholars deposit, for a total of $150 to jumpstart education savings.
What Effect Does Keystone Scholars Have?
Research shows that children with even a small amount of education savings are three times more likely to pursue post-secondary education – and four times as likely to graduate. Saving early has a very positive impact.
Treasury’s Keystone Scholars program conducted a survey of participating families, and 98% of parents expected their newborn to get at least a bachelor’s degree. These high expectations were found across all demographics — income, parental education, geography, race, and ethnicity. The full findings of the survey are available at pa529.com/keystone.
The survey also revealed that many families wait to start saving because they think it’s too early to do so. The fact is that it’s never too early, because the earlier you start the more time your savings has to grow. Keystone Scholars is here to take the first step with you.
Treasury encourages families to take advantage of the many benefits of saving early in their own PA 529 account. PA 529 accounts are simple and free to open, and contributions as little as $1 can be made any time. No contribution is too small. As one example, saving $25 a month (less than $1 a day) over a child’s first 18 years could mean approximately $10,000 in education savings for them when they’re ready to follow their dreams.
I encourage you to log on to pa529.com/keystone to access your child’s account today. If you have more questions, or need help getting started with your own PA 529 account, call Treasury at 800-440-4000 or email pa529@patreasury.gov.
Keystone Scholars is open to Pennsylvania residents born on or after January 1, 2019, and children born on or after January 1, 2019, who are subsequently adopted by a Pennsylvania resident. The child must be a Pennsylvania resident at birth or adoption and at the time the Keystone Scholars funds are used. The child must also be the Beneficiary of a PA 529 account other than the Keystone Scholars Account at the time Keystone Scholars funds are used. If not used by the beneficiary’s 29th birthday, the funds will be returned to the Pennsylvania Treasury Department (Treasury). Funds in a Keystone Scholars Account will be invested in a PA 529 GSP account and will remain under the sole custody of Treasury until they are used for the purposes of paying for qualified higher education expenses at an institution of higher education. A list of qualified higher education expenses may be found at www.pa529.com. No additional funds may be contributed to a Keystone Scholars account. However, families are encouraged to save in their own PA 529 account, which can be linked to a Keystone Scholars account.
