We offer field trips for grades kindergarten through grades 3. And id love to have each and every one of you come on one of those field trips with me. Im telling you, there is no better time to be had. Its such a great event that the pbs news hour a few months back came on one of the field trips and did a piece they put on the news hour and will be forwarding a clip of that to you so you can see it for yourself. But you got to come on one, i promise you. K2c is designed to equity in mind. I want to do everything i can to get those people who face barriers to the starting line. Organizations including felten institute, mission graduates, parents for Public Schools of San Francisco, family connections, 100 college prep, and the urban ed academy. Other partners like meta, and richmond promise neighborhood have been instrumental in getting students and families to engage with the kindergarten to college accounts. Some of the organizations are here with us this evening, but many are with us during the year. With the help of our partners last year, five historically underserved pitched schools increased Student Engagement with the College Savings account by over 20 . This year, were giving special attention to the other five pitch schools, bryant, chavez, muir and willie brown to increase family contributions. Some of our partners have started taking deposits right on school property. Two schools in fact have reached 100 participation. Every child in that school has started to save because of the onsite deposit opportunities. Im excited to report this year were developing a new equity incentive that provides extra support to students from lowincome families. Its really an exciting time to be doing this work. Particularly since k2cs launch, 10 other cities in california have started programs similar to ours and there are 65 programs across the country that have followed San Franciscos lead. And former mayor gavin newsom excuse me, now governor gavin newsom remains a k2c champion. And his budget invests 50 million to support College Savings account programs just like kindergarten to college being spread across more cities in california. We cant wait to hit the ground running with the next phase of the program. We know with your enthusiasm and partnership, San Francisco will continue to lead in this effort for the entire country. And wed be happy to take questions. Thank you. I think we did have one person that signed up for Public Comment. Maybe not. People want trade school. They can buy their machinery when they get out of trade schools. Hi, Marissa Robinson again. Im coming from a school that actually has partnered with k2c and interestingly enough, i didnt know you guys were presenting tonight [laughter]. But i just wanted to really suggest that you guys really take a deep dive into the equity part of it. Currently there are no banks in the neighborhood where students and families can actually go and deposit or create a Checking Account that can be linked to make a transfer to a savings account. Its hard for families to build Financial Literacy and build wealth without someone in the middle saying give me your two coins and ill make four coins for you. We need to look at that. Implementing financial lessons. The kids understand it, if i say five nickels and get a piece of candy. But im a family liaison in my 9 to 5 work, that could be helpful for my school site. My families value saving money. They value sending their babies to college and having somewhere to make that happen. What they dont value is the limited access to it. I would just suggest you take time and really think about how that works and the partners youre inviting onto the campuses and the programs they develop for families to contribute. Im a designated deposittaker, so i can ive been trained to take deposits and hold onto them and get them to the bank for my families, but not every school has that capacity. Thank you. Vice president sanchez thank you for your commitment to the program. I can attest to your handson when i was principal at cleveland, you came to the school. Toward the end of your presentation you talked about lowincome families. Can you go into that . Does that mean there is going to be more of an initial deposit for those families . Well still describing what the incentives are going to look like. Were still trying to figure out how to get the data we need and distribute them as a equity measure. Were still working and having conversations with the School Districts about what we can do moving forward. There is funding we might be able to place into the students. So we initiated for this year in our student formula that we were going to support more students who reside in Public Housing. So i think if you havent already gone down that road, i think that would be worth while endeavor to see if the students who reside in Public Housing merit having an extra amount deposited into their accounts. As well as were looking at supporting at a higher rate, our homeless students. And foster students. Foster students as well as families of students whose parent of guardian is incarcerated. Those are the families most in need and im hoping you can look at that families to prioritize. We appreciate the ideas and input. One they think i want to emphasize is the benefit from the Program Comes from getting the families to engage with the account. So while we can put maybe another 50 or even 100 more into the account, the way that it translates into aspirations for the child is the family going together and making deposits. I wonder if maybe we could figure out ways we could maybe supply the deposit funds, but then help the families go and make the deposits themselves . Yes. I think we ought to have maybe the office help out in this regard. The families that are least likely to be able to, for one reason or another, to engage in this are have the children of the students that need it the most, right . Well, and thats why maybe taking deposits in the schoolyard, to the public speaker, just giving more access to the way deposits are made might be a way do that as well. Ms. Lopez hi, thank you for presenting. That was actually my question along the lines of Financial Literacy and if you offer classes in that area, or what that looks like. Because there are a number of organizations in the city already who do that for families. So if there is a way to partner with them or keep building on the work that has already been done with parent liaisons. Yes, some of our partners are already presenting something. Parents for Public Schools is doing something. Well be working with them. We offer adult field trips, taking them, showing them to how to make a deposit, what does that mean. Were trying to work with partners. The children, Financial Literacy, weve been counseling with post secondary success. We have created a resource guide for kindergarten to 8th grade. We had it for k5 two years ago and this summer just created the growth to 8th grade. So there are financial lessons that the schools can provide also. Theyre available to all the counselors, so all the 8th middle School Councillors know about it. And the kit was sent to all k5 Elementary Schools. Ms. Lopez one last thing around the outreach. It seems like you have a high number of participants, but even as a teacher in the district, i hadnt heard of this program until later. It could be im a fourth grade teacher, im far removed from kindergarten we need your help. Please help us get the word out. Every year we send a letter home in the weekly the wednesday envelope or whatever version. We send the letter home to every kindergartners parents so they learn about the accounts. We do that through the school, so theoretically, every Elementary School principal and every teacher of the kindergartner knows that. And we also send letters through the same packages to all the account holders throughout the year. We send home a statement of their balances in the program. Unfortunately, still, the majority of families have not started to safe. Weve tried to find out how to reach them. In fact, weve asked parents, who would you listen to if they sent you a reminder message. I promise you they werent ready to listen to the treasurer. They didnt want to listen to the city treasurer about a reminder. They werent that interested in hearing from the mayor, as much as i love the mayor. They said who they listen to the most is their childs teacher. They said if my childs teacher tells me to do something, i do it. And the next was the school principal. Im asking if we can get more teachers and principals and school staff to be talking about the program. At this point everyone in the School District through 9th grade has an account. Every single child through 9th grade. Next year it will be through 10th grade and so on. Were close to every kid in the district having an account, unfortunately, the majority of them havent started saving yet. Were asking for every school to identify a k2c ambassador to be a liaison to the program, give them updates, let them know the packages are coming. By the end of next monday, all the k to 9 students will get the envelope. If theyre new students, theyll get a welcome kit. If theyre existing student, theyll get an activity statement. So every teacher should be handing out an envelope specific to those students. President cook commissioner ma liga. Mr. Moliga i learned about this program last year. And i know a lot of kids who are, like, opportunities for programs last summer, my son. And kids didnt even know they had Bank Accounts. So just like a little bit of clarity. Are these can these kids use them when they have employment through the city and can they deposit into these accounts . These accounts are strictly College Savings accounts. We define it clearly in the Program Information we send out to the new account holders. All deposits on these accounts are oneway deposits. The money stays there until the child well, finishes high school. And is ready to use it for any postsecondary education. Trade school, college, books, computers, whatever it takes for them to be successful Post High School is what this money is meant to be there for. Its not everyday savings accounts. We do have other programs. We partner with the Mayors Office on summer jobs for youth. You might be familiar with, the city does a lot of getting 16, 17 and 18 and 19 and 20yearolds connected to summer jobs or yearround jobs often times for people that age. We work with those new job paycheck receivers to make sure they have have Bank Accounts to put their checks into. Its meant to connect anybody in the city to a bank account, Checking Account or savings account, if thats what they need. And we even have banks and Credit Unions that will open them noncustodial for 16 and 17yearolds. My follow up and last question, what happens to the funding if the kids dont use it after . Excellent question. So we put the money in there and both the family money that is deposited and our money, and the incentives we offer if they make a deposit, we put another 10 into the account just to reward them for making a deposit. All that goes there and stays there for educational purpose after high school. When the account holder turns 25, any of the family money theyve not used for educational purpose, we give to the 25yearold. Its their money, its not our money. So they do always get their money back. The money we put in, the 50 and the incentive payments, they were there to support education, so if they dont have an educational need to use it for, well use it for some other student educational needs. About you believe me but believe me the family and the account holders will always get their money. I just had a question, i have five 9th graders. I dont think ive ever received a letter. I worked in central office. I know the communication piece, there is a disconnect. Should i have been receiving these i mean, my kids were theyre 9th graders now, so at the beginning of the program maybe things were different. But over the last three or four years, should i have been receiving communication . The kids now in 9th grade that was the first year of the program. It was a pilot year and we only opened up accounts for 25 of the kids that year. So, unfortunately, your kids may have been one of the three quarters that didnt get accounts that year. Were rounding out the first two years which were partial account years. If they didnt have an account before this year, theyre going to get one. My question is, im wanting to close the loop. Some schools are good at sharing information that is given to them and some arent as good. Im wondering how we know youre giving them out, what is the feedback loop . I dont know if you can answer that question, but if families dont receive the information, it gets communicated differently at different sites. I agree. Because were not sure. We distribute it to the School District and the School District distributes its to the school. If it gets to the student, it will be hard to track. Your children probably my kids went to jean parker. Probably not. The grade after yours started. So they were in the second year pilot. Parker was second year pilot, not the first year. This fall, which is next month, youll get a welcome packet. Were opening accounts right now for the 9th graders, so youll get the package next month. But we dont have a good feedback loops other than schools that may return some because a student moved away. But thats the only way we know if someone didnt get it. I would ask if there is a way that the staff, once theyve gone out, like if we can wait a certain period of time, maybe we can send messages to families or post on the website so that if there is families because if you dont know, you dont know. So if there is a family that sees it and says, wait, i didnt get that, maybe my kid was sick or whatever, then theyd know. If there is information where folks can follow up to find out. And we know that some schools in the early years did robocalls to let the families know these were coming home. We would love ideas making sure the package reaches them. If somebody doesnt get their packet, we can baget the information. Ms. Lopez i have actually now started thinking about the information that youre gathering from students. One of the things that makes it really hard for people to open a bank account is providing their Social Security information and things, what do you gather from the students . We dont gather anything from the students or the families, we open the account with the name, the home address, date of birth and name of parent. So maybe sharing that, too, so people feel safer in pursuing this. Sure. We dont gather anything else other than that. And it all stays with us absolutely. Absolutely confidential. President cook that would be a great way for me to defer to you. Ms. Norton im sorry, i was late to the meeting but listened on the radio and i heard your presentation. I want to come on a field trip. It sounds adorable. Can we please sign everybody up for the field trip . Tell me when the next one is, i want to go. [applause] we need adult chaperones. We need if you watch the pbs news hour video, we put a step stool in front of the bank teller window because the 5yearolds cant peer over the counter. But when they get to the teller window, they dont know what to do. I stand there and say, this is linda, shes the teller, now say id like to make a deposit. Id like to make a deposit. To my College Savings account. To my that could be you. You could be coaching 25yearolds way better than what i do all day. Nothing better in the world. They get a tour of the bank vaul. They havent let me in, but the 5yearolds have. I was hearing some of the statistics in the presentation on the way over here and its really wonder to feel see how the program is such a success. Im convinced were the first College Savings program in the country that has truly found a way to have lowincome families save for college. Again, it doesnt matter if they save a lot or a little, its about building aspirations. Their kids are going to grow up with the same opportunities every other kid has and that what we want. President cook thank you for the presentation. One of the reasons i wanted you to present on the topic, there is a lot of people that dont know about the program. We often have these benefits to our community that arent well communicated to the rest of the city. So there are a lot of opportunities for partnership. And one of the things i just wanted to elevate was however were doing the communication now is we need to rethink how we do it. So these mass messages that go out, these flyer things that go out, if we want people to know the resource is available, we need to you to come back on an annual basis. People get the letter and say i never signed up for a savings account. Or they may see the money and need it. And they think, oh, you know. So i know there is a scenario where they cant access the money if there is an emergency. There is. Can you swing that . We make it clear these are College Savings accounts, and the money is intended for the college education, but in a few instances weve been approached by families who said they had a dire financial emergency. And while their best intention was to put the money way for the longterm, they have a financial emergency and we of course accommodate the families in that situation. President cook okay. So i want to start the conversation and hopefully we can find more ways to work on this together and thank you for the presentation. Thank you. Im sorry. Commissioner . Sorry, two comments. Treasurer is being humble in the sense that the product, or the Savings Account Program that has been develop