Investing in Minnesota's Future: A Look at the MinneKIDS Initiative
In 2023, Youthprise, alongside several other partner organizations, embarked on a groundbreaking initiative, securing a $500,000 legislative appropriation for community design work to empower Minnesota communities to explore the possibility of establishing a statewide Child Savings Account program. This investment enabled the partners to envision a future where young people and families build wealth from birth and confidently pursue postsecondary opportunities. Through a competitive RFP process in, three organizations were selected in early 2024 to lead this charge, developing action-oriented community tables focused on creating community-driven Child Savings Accounts (CSAs) across the state. These design sites include Rice County (Northfield Healthy Community Initiative), Hennepin County (Minneapolis Public Schools, Northwest Family Resources Collaborative, and United Way Twin Cities), and Central Minnesota (United Way of Central Minnesota).
Across these three diverse locations, the MinneKIDS community design grant cohorts have been met with enthusiasm. Communities recognize that investing in children's futures strengthens families, bolsters economies, and expands opportunities for everyone. Through a collaborative approach, parents, local businesses, young people, and various stakeholders engaged in vital conversations, exploring the best ways to implement a program like MinneKIDS both locally and statewide. After over a year of dedicated effort, each community has unearthed key insights:
Community Insights: Tailoring MinneKIDS to Local Needs
Central Minnesota: This community views a Children's Savings Account (CSA) program as an essential tool for dismantling systemic inequities and fostering long-term financial health. By promoting higher education attainment and workforce readiness, the program aims to support individual success while simultaneously enhancing economic resilience and community prosperity.
Hennepin County: Parents universally dream of security, happiness, and opportunity for their children, yet many face significant hurdles like wealth inequality and racial disparities. For Hennepin County, a CSA program transcends mere financial support; it represents a promise to value every child's potential. By equipping families with the tools to save and plan for their children's futures, Hennepin County is actively transforming hope into action, forging a more equitable path from birth to career.
Rice County: The CSA program in Rice County is meticulously designed to address the unique needs of its diverse community. It offers incentives for key milestones, actively tackles cultural and financial barriers, and tailors savings strategies to different populations, thereby fostering both financial equity and identity formation. The goal is to ensure all youth, regardless of their background, possess the resources and confidence to pursue their aspirations, whether that be college, career training, or other pathways to success.
MinneKIDS grantees expressed their enthusiasm for the program, which also aligns with the state's goal of ensuring that 70 percent of Minnesotans attain a postsecondary credential or degree.
“This opportunity empowered us to deeply engage with families from the day their child is born, fostering lifelong financial empowerment and excitement for learning,” ”
“The possibilities that lay ahead for developing CSAs for the youth in our communities makes us so grateful for the opportunity and for the community partners that have already stepped up to the plate to help move this noble work forward.”
The MinneKIDS Vision: A Statewide Blueprint for Success
The groundwork laid by these communities is vital for the broader MinneKIDS Statewide Blueprint, which aims to create a comprehensive Children's Savings Account program for Minnesota. The program envisions universal eligibility for all children born on or after July 1, 2026, who are Minnesota residents at birth or move to the state before high school graduation. This inclusive approach ensures that approximately 65,000 babies born in Minnesota each year will be eligible.
A key feature of the MinneKIDS program is automatic enrollment using birth records, with an opt-out option. This best practice maximizes participation by removing barriers and administrative burdens for families, ensuring every eligible child receives an account. Currently, Minnesota law classifies birth records of children born to unmarried mothers as confidential. The MinneKIDS blueprint recommends amending this policy to allow CSA programs access to these records for account opening, thereby enhancing accessibility and inclusivity.
Upon enrollment, each child's account will receive an initial seed deposit of $50, with an increased deposit of $100 for children from low-income families (defined by WIC enrollment). The program also incorporates incentive deposits tied to "cradle-to-college" milestones and engagement with the CSA account. These include bonuses for WIC enrollment, Kindergarten enrollment, a family or child deposit into the CSA account in middle school, and FAFSA completion in high school, as well as a one-time log-in bonus. Additionally, local MinneKIDS affiliates will have the flexibility to offer their own community-driven incentive deposits.
The chosen account vehicle for MinneKIDS is the MN SAVES-529 Account, administered by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education. This leverages existing statewide infrastructure and provides tax-advantaged growth for educational expenses, including tuition, fees, books, supplies, equipment, room and board, school technology, and special needs services.
The Impact: Stronger Families, Thriving Economies, Brighter Futures
The MinneKIDS program aims for significant long-term outcomes at both the participant and state levels. For participants, this includes an increased percentage of youth enrolling in and completing postsecondary education, and young adults possessing the skills and education necessary for success in the future economy. At the state level, MinneKIDS seeks to narrow gaps in postsecondary educational attainment by race and income, reduce disparities in employment rates and income by race, encourage young adults to remain in or return to Minnesota and contribute to the state's economy, and foster a more skilled, educated workforce. While these long-term outcomes will take over 20 years to fully materialize, the program will track short- and medium-term progress through indicators such as a higher percentage of children with savings for postsecondary education, improved social-emotional functioning for toddlers, and a reduction in maternal depression.
The structure of MinneKIDS is envisioned as a "hub and spoke" model, with the Minnesota Office of Higher Education acting as the centralized statewide administrator and local MinneKIDS affiliates serving as implementation, outreach, and engagement partners. This structure promotes efficiency by centralizing key functions while allowing for tailored local engagement, ensuring communities of all sizes can participate without needing extensive individual resources to administer programs.
The success of a program like MinneKIDS is not just an aspiration; it's a proven reality. Research on Children's Savings Accounts consistently demonstrates positive impacts on educational outcomes, financial behaviors, and overall well-being. For example, the CollegeBound Saint Paul program in Minnesota, which served as a pilot for MinneKIDS, shows a prospective social return on investment of $9 for every $1 invested, including $2 in benefits for taxpayers, through increased educational attainment, improved social-emotional development, reduced student debt, and increased tax revenues.
Together, these communities are proving that when we invest in children from the very beginning, we lay the foundation for stronger families, thriving local economies, and a brighter, more equitable future for all. MinneKIDS represents a significant step forward in Minnesota's commitment to its youngest generation.