What's at stake?
California is helping families invest in their kids' future. With cash.
Across California, a program created to jumpstart college and career training savings accounts has been awarding money to all children born on or after July 1, 2022, with scholarship accounts worth up to $175 waiting to be claimed.
Here’s how you can check your eligibility and claim free funds towards your child’s future.
What is the program and how does it work?
The California Kids Investment and Development Savings (CalKIDS) program, launched in 2022, provides all newborns in California with savings accounts for higher education or career training that include an initial deposit and incentives for more money to be awarded. The program is administered by the ScholarShare Investment Board.
The program receives birth data from the California Department of Public Health or the California Department of Education (CDE) and automatically enrolls all eligible babies. A notification for the award along with a unique code to access the child’s CalKIDS account is mailed to parents or legal guardians within 90 days of the program receiving a child’s birth data.
If this unique code has been lost, parents can also access the account by using the Local Registration Number located on their child’s birth certificate.
CalKIDS financial awards also includes the following student groups:
3.4 million low-income, public school students who were enrolled in grades 1-12 during the 2021-22 academic year
Every first grade class starting from the 2022-23 school year and all years after who were identified as low-income by their Local Control Funding Formula who meet additional criteria.
“It’s the nation’s largest child development account program in the country, we have over 5 million children already enrolled and it represents a public investment of over $2 billion statewide,” said Stanley Zeto, deputy executive director for the ScholarShare Investment Board.
Students grades 1-12 during the 2021-22 academic year were sent letters based on CDE data containing a code to claim their accounts. If this code was lost, the student’s Statewide Student Identifier (SSID) can be used to access the account.
If you’re unsure of your child’s eligibility, visit CalKIDS’ website here and answer a few questions to check eligibility.
Once you’ve got all the relevant information on hand, visit CalKID.org or click here to claim your child’s account.
How much money will I be awarded?
Depending on a student’s age, the award amount varies:
All children born in California between July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023 received an initial $25 deposit into a CalKIDS account.
All children born in California on or after July 1, 2023 received an initial $100 deposit.
Doing the following will give you additional award funds:
Registering on the program’s online portal will deposit an additional $25 in your CalKIDS account.
Linking the CalKIDS account to a new or existing ScholarShare 529 college savings account will deposit an additional $50.
All low-income and English Learner students who were enrolled in a California public school during the 2021-22 school year from grades 1-12 received a $500 automatic deposit into a CalKIDS account. These students must also have me one of the following criteria:
The student received free or reduced-price meals
The student was identified to have been a migrant, homeless or in foster care
The student was identified as an English Learner based on the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC).
Students who were identified as foster youth received an additional $500 deposit and students who were also identified as homeless received an additional $500, a possible total of $1,500.
All low-income public school students enrolled in 1st grade who meet the aforementioned criteria from 2022-23 and onwards receive the award amounts that total to $1,500.
This article was updated on Nov. 25 to correct the year the CalKIDS program was launched. The program launched in 2022.
