Abstract
In recent years, state and local policy makers and service providers have adopted children's savings accounts (CSAs) as a strategy to help more children and parents see postsecondary education as an attainable goal early in life. CSAs are programs that provide children (starting in elementary school or younger) with savings or investment accounts and financial incentives for the purpose of education after high school. Beyond their dollar value, these programs are associated with a range of positive outcomes for children and parents, including improvements in early child development, 1,2 positive parenting, 3 educational performance, 4,5,6 and educational expectations. 7,8,9 The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the operational and financial realities for many CSA programs and has raised questions about funding and future directions of the field. In addition, recent organizing around racial justice has led many programs to examine how well their CSAs are serving families of color. Based on the results of a national survey, this report focuses on the perceived impacts of COVID-19 and racial equity movements on the CSA field and what resources programs will require to address communities' new and evolving needs. Although the CSA field has been actively engaging in discussions about the challenges brought by the pandemic and how to enhance racial equity, this is the first field-wide empirical research on the effects of these challenges for CSAs.