Dive Brief:

• In Dallas, the Arapaho Classical Magnet school is piloting the Dollars for College program, which teaches kindergartners about saving money and basic financial planning.  
• The program also includes parents, by helping them open a free college savings account.
• The concept underlying the program is the idea that by starting young, students will grow up believing that they can attend college and get jobs requiring college degrees.

Dive Insight:

Tackling problems like college savings early on will likely have long-lasting effects for students in this program. Early savings combined with the possibility of debt-free college plans may have tremendous and far-reaching consequences, eventually helping more students from low-income background attend college.

Programs that start when children are young can see a large impact later on. In California, an initiative aimed at kindergarteners and their parents is aimed at combatting chronic truancy and absences, which have a proven long-term negative effect on student success. For students who miss 10% or more of kindergarten and first grade, just 17% will go on to read at grade level by the end of third grade. Subsequently, those students who aren't reading at grade level by the end of third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school.