KS Corner

July 2024

Keystone Scholars Savers: Millions Saved in PA 529 Accounts

One of the primary goals of Keystone Scholars is to prompt parents to start saving for their child’s education as early as possible. PA 529 account owners, who have also claimed their child’s Keystone Scholars account, have now contributed over $100 million toward their child’s post-high school education, including $48 million in the last year alone!

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Keystone Scholars Fast Facts:

Total accounts funded:	672,676
Percentage of babies with accounts funded (since January 1, 2019):	100%
Total accounts registered:	76,914
Percentage of registered accounts with linked PA 529:	25.49%
Cumulative contributions of accounts with linked PA 529:	$103,328,663.70

Data as of June 30, 2024

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2024-2025 Kindergarten Registration

Many of our 2019 cohort of Keystone Scholars kids are registering for kindergarten this fall! We have created a Keystone Scholars Claim Form that you can include in your school’s registration process. This form explains what Keystone Scholars is and how parents can claim their child’s account.

How you can help

• Encourage families to claim their child’s account by providing an external link in kindergarten and school registration materials; and

• Inform families about Keystone Scholars through social media postings, posters, brochures or bookmarks.

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Partner Spotlights

We are grateful to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) who partnered with Treasury to send texts to all Pennsylvania participants encouraging them to claim their child’s Keystone Scholars account. In a two-day period, Treasury saw a 300% increase in claimed WIC Keystone Scholars accounts over the same two-day period a year prior. WIC will send another text in November to new WIC participants.

If you are able to text participants in your organization about claiming Keystone Scholars accounts, please reach out to Karen McDermott at kmcdermott@patreasury.gov for more details.

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CSAs in the News

William Elliott, professor at the University of Michigan and founding director of Center of Assets, Education, and Inclusion, authored an article reminding us of the benefits of CSA programs. CSAs provide a financial structure to collect contributions from a variety of entities such as governments, employers, philanthropic foundations, communities, private donors and others. Although each newborn is provided their own account, they should be thought of only as community accounts opened for individual children. CSAs challenge the norm that paying for college and building wealth for low-income children is solely or even mostly the responsibility of families or even the government alone. 
Read the article here.

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Our Outreach Team is Growing!

The Pennsylvania Treasury welcomes Jolene Miraglia as the new Regional Program Relationship Manager for the northeast region. Jolene previously worked in social services and non-profit organizations, including the Domestic Violence Service Center in Luzerne County as the Outreach Director, and the American Red Cross where she managed special events in Luzerne, Lackawanna, Columbia, and Montour counties. Most recently, Jolene worked in higher education as the Program Coordinator at Misericordia University where she coordinated service learning and volunteer opportunities for students in the Occupational Therapy program. Jolene is looking forward to promoting awareness and claiming of Keystone Scholars accounts in the northeast region, including Carbon, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Northampton, Pike, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Wayne, and Wyoming counties. Jolene can be reached at jmiraglia@patreasury.gov.