NYC Kids RISE

529 Day 2026 is one for the books! On (5/29, get it? 😄), schools and communities across the city came together to celebrate all the ways we are building a financial foundation for our youngest students’ college and career dreams, together.

From interactive saving and budgeting activities, themed activation parties and workshops, to community forums and block parties; schools, communities, and families stepped up to highlight what’s possible when we invest in our children’s futures early and reinforce expectations of success for all kids through the NYC Kids RISE Program.

Across the five boroughs, nearly every kindergarten through fourth grader has an NYC Scholarship Account invested in a 529 plan with financial assets for the future. That’s more than 380,000 students with more than $85 million accumulated for their college and career training, and support from their whole communities to achieve their dreams!

Happy , NYC! 529 Day is an opportunity to raise awareness about ways we are building a financial foundation for our youngest students’ college and career dreams, together. Through the Program, K-4th graders have NYC Scholarship Accounts with money already invested in a 529 account for college + career training!

Join families + communities across NYC by activating your child’s NYC Scholarship Account to get more money for their future! nyckidsrise.org/activate

And find out how your school is celebrating 529 Day with college and career readiness and family and community engagement activities!

member joined ’s monthly “Coffee and Conversation with the Principal” this week! Together they welcomed families to celebrate the financial foundation that the P.S.171 school community is building for students’ college and career futures through the Program. 🎓💰

Families learned about the Councilmember’s firsthand experience as a first generation college student with significant student loans. She shared how meaningful it is for today’s families to get a head start planning for the future and building compound interest for their children’s higher education over time.

The Save for College Program is an important tool for college and career readiness. Nearly every family at has activated their child’s NYC Scholarship Account with money already set aside for their future! 🎉Including rewards from completing Program Building Blocks and including funds from Community Scholarships, students at the school collectively have over $208,800 across their NYC Scholarship Accounts for college and career training!

P.S. 171Q families are already taking the next steps in the Program to start saving in the ways and amounts that make sense for their circumstances. If you have already activated your child’s free NYC Scholarship Account, learn about the next steps you can take and the additional rewards you can receive as we save for your child’s future, together. ➡️Go to nyckidsrise.org/bb2

Five years ago this week, we were with the Baychester Academy school community to announce that, for the first time in our city’s history, nearly every New York City public school kindergartener had received an NYC Scholarship Account with money already invested for the future through NYC Kids RISE Program.

That inaugural citywide class of kindergartners has since been joined by tens of thousands of students and seen how their schools, families, and communities can come together to support their dreams through the Program.

Today we celebrate that more than 380,000 students, including the Baychester Academy kindergarteners who added their names to the school’s money tree five years ago, already have over $80 million saved for their futures! 🥳💰🎓

Today, we celebrate the mothers, grandmothers, aunts, guardians, caregivers, mentors, and all those who “mother” — the people who nurture, encourage, guide, and show up for our children every single day. ❤️

At NYC Kids RISE, we see the countless ways families and caregivers help children dream bigger and believe in their futures — from walking them to school, to cheering them on at milestones big and small, to making sacrifices so they can thrive.

Every child’s journey is shaped by people who help them feel loved, supported, and capable of becoming who they are meant to be. Thank you for the care you give, the hope you inspire, and the future you help build each day.

To all who mother: we celebrate you, and we thank you. Happy ! 🌷

Thank you to teachers who see their students’ potential from their very first days of school and support them to discover and achieve their dreams. Teachers’ encouragement is a source of motivation and inspiration for a lifetime for these NYC Public School Alumni revisiting the school communities that helped them get to where they are today.

Pictured: Alum and Chancellor John B. King, Jr. with his former teacher Mr. Allan Osterweil, Alum Jaleni Thompson with his former teacher Ms. Roslyn Odinga and her daughter Dr. Meisha Porter, and Alum Carolina Valencia with her former teacher Ms. Gabrielle Minassian.

It’s a pivotal moment for financial education in New York City. Next school year, nearly every public elementary school student will have an NYC Scholarship Account through the NYC Kids RISE Save for College Program with money invested for future college and career training, and personal finance education will soon be a K-12 requirement. At Office of Student Pathways’ third annual last week, we joined district and school leaders, educators, and parent coordinators—our city’s financial education champions—to meet the moment. Together we advanced ideas for building the strongest financial foundation for NYC students’ futures, starting by strengthening students’ sense of agency and ownership of the assets growing in their NYC Scholarship Accounts beginning in kindergarten.

Thank you to Sabine Maura, Senior Director of Financial Empowerment, Eileen Marks, Director of Innovation and 21st Century Skills, and the entire Office of Student Pathways team for bringing us together and reinforcing a shared vision of personal financial empowerment and mastery for every student.

This year’s Campaign was the biggest one yet and has reached a historic milestone. NYC Public School Alumni, alongside our philanthropic partners over the past three years have now invested more than $1 million in students’ college and career futures!

This investment spans every single school district across the five boroughs. And for the last two years, students in very high economic-need communities have received an “equity-boost” of fifty dollars per account, in addition to what the alumni raised with the philanthropic match. Whether the deposit is $10 per student or $500, alumni are showing our kids that their community is invested in their dreams and has their back.

This incredible financial investment is only part of the story. What’s just as critical is alumni showcasing diverse college and career pathways to the students, expanding their ideas about what is possible for the future through classroom visits, career days, video messages, and more. See NYC Public School Alumni in action boosting kids’ belief in their potential.