Brilliant Baby March Newsletter

Dear BB Community,

Hello Brilliant Baby family! We are thrilled to introduce our new Program Associates. Nahom and Deprece now will be your main points of contact! Nahom was raised in San Rafael, CA, and he completed his undergraduate degree at San Diego State last May. After moving back to the Bay Area, he accepted the offer with Oakland Promise for an Accounting Associate role. As much as he enjoyed that job and his colleagues on the Finance team, he wanted to have opportunities to work directly with Oakland Promise families. As a Brilliant Baby Program Associate, he'll have lots of interaction through customer service calls, Community Connections, and more.

Deprece is very familiar with our program, having enrolled the two youngest of her five children with Brilliant Baby. She has many talents and is fluent in both Spanish & English. A first generation immigrant to the U.S., she currently lives in Oakland but spent her childhood in Colombia and San Francisco, CA. Before coming to Oakland Promise, she spent many years working both in education and the nonprofit sector. If you have any questions about programming, please text “Help” at (510) 726-7809, and Deprece or Nahom will get back to you. 

Facts about Tax Changes 

In 2021, the federal government expanded some tax credits, but; for the 2022 tax year they will return back to 2019 levels. If you are affected, this means you are likely to receive a smaller refund compared to the previous year. Changes have been made to the following tax credits: Child Tax Credit (CTC), Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child and Dependent Care Credit.

1.  If you received $3,600 per dependent in 2021 for the CTC if eligible, you will get $2,000 for the 2022 tax year. If you received the EITC, you received roughly $1,500 in 2021. 

2. Now you can get a maximum of $530 for 2022. 

3. If you received The Child and Dependent Care Credit, it returns to a maximum of $2,100 in 2022 instead of $8,000 in 2021. If you are affected by these changes and want to learn more about tax changes please click the link below.

Tips to Prepare for Kindergarten 

Is your brilliant baby preparing to start kindergarten? If so, we hope you enjoyed our recent community Connection with the family navigator from Oakland Unified School District’s preschool department. One of the main topics was school-readiness, which is about children being prepared to sit and concentrate for longer periods of time. It also includes children displaying self-care skills like sharing an adult’s attention, being patient, using the restroom or even opening their own lunch box.

 According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), here are five great ways to help you prepare your child for school.

1. Focus on self-help skills. Children should know how to open their lunch with no assistance. 

2. Teach responsibility. Let them complete small tasks such as hanging up their coat.

3. Create a routine. This will help them transition to waking up and going to bed early.

4. Read aloud to your child and encourage them to write. 

5. Finally, remember to acknowledge their feelings. Some children will be nervous to start school, while others may be excited. All of these feelings are normal! If you are interested in reading more about school-readiness, please click the button below.

CalKIDS

California just started an exciting new program called CalKIDS that is a little like Brilliant Baby! They are opening College Savings Accounts (like my529) for every baby born July 1, 2022 or later as well as all for low income public school students in grades 1-12! California is using a company called Scholarshare rather than my529, but it works in just the same way.

According to their website, “CalKIDS is a program that helps children in California get access to higher education, especially those from traditionally underserved communities. Enrollment in CalKIDS is automatic. Eligible beneficiaries are identified by the California Department of Public Health and the California Department of Education. No action or financial commitment is required of families to participate.”

CalKIDS receives information on newborns approximately 90 days after they are born. 

Eligible newborns receive a $25 seed deposit in a CalKIDS account. You will receive another $25 deposit in your CalKIDS account when you register on the CalKIDSonline portal.

To check your baby’s eligibility click the link below. 

$500 Seed Money Boosts Parents’ College Goals for Kids

This month we would like to include a joint press release from Oakland Promise, NORC at the University of Chicago and UCSF Children’s Hospital in Oakland about a research study looking at the effectiveness of our program.

In a randomized controlled trial co-led by NORC at the University of Chicago and UCSF Benioff Children’s, researchers found a positive effect on parents’ hopes and educational aspirations for their child in families with infants who received college savings accounts, as well as improved health and lower stress among the caregivers. In those families who received personalized financial coaching, the program also improved caregivers’ perceptions of financial well-being and led to greater participation in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). 

Nationwide, in concert with scholarships and grants available to college students, Child Savings Accounts (CSAs) have become a cornerstone for preparing young children and their families with expectations and resources to complete the post-secondary education needed to secure job and career opportunities. 

“This research supports implications for wider impact at the state and national levels,” says Sandra Ernst, CEO of Oakland Promise. “With the mission of creating equity, CSAs are getting more attention and investment, such as with the new CalKIDS College Savings program in California, to help college become a reality for all children.” 
 

Early Investments Have Positive Impacts

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the study recruited eligible families receiving medical care at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland for infants who were 2 to 9 months old. All participating families’ household incomes were low enough to be eligible for Medi-Cal, with 82% earning less than $30,000 annually. Most participants were members of historically underrepresented groups: 88% identified as Black, Brown or multi-ethnic, and only 15% had a primary caregiver who had earned an undergraduate degree.

“This 18-month phase of the study assessed the impact of providing early investments in children’s savings accounts for low-income children on their development and educational trajectory, as well as the positive effects of financial coaching for parents,” says Marc Hernandez, PhD, a principal research scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago. “This is the first evaluation of a program that integrates a 529 college savings account with a patient’s medical home, while also offering the family financial coaching, embedded within a promise program.”

The study examined the initial program impact from baseline until children were approximately 18 months of age. Children were randomly assigned upon enrollment to one of three groups:

– Control group: Received “standard of care” at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland and no Brilliant Baby programming

– CSA only group: In addition to standard of care, the Brilliant Baby program established a 529 CSA seeded with $500 

– CSA plus coaching group: In addition to standard of care and a CSA, parents had the opportunity to meet one-on-one with a financial coach up to six times over a one-year period, with $100 stipends for the first three sessions to incentivize attendance.

Improving Hope and Health 

When the children were 18 months old, the research found measurable benefits for both CSA groups. The group that included coaching showed statistically significant increases in parents’ expectations about how much education their child will complete, improvements in their sense of hope, optimism, stress levels and financial well-being, and a higher likelihood of saving for their child’s education and of participating in other programs that support their family’s health. 

“Offering college savings accounts through pediatric primary care clinics is a powerful resource that makes providers part of the solution in improving the child’s developmental, educational and health outcomes,” says Dayna Long, MD, a principal investigator on the study and co-director of the UCSF Center for Child and Community Health.      

Joci Kelleher, Director of Oakland Promise’s Brilliant Baby program, adds that when CSAs are accompanied by financial coaching, “parents experience even more tangible benefits — which is especially critical for families with lower incomes.” 

Researchers will collect additional data when the children are 36 months old and will continue to follow the children until kindergarten.

If you would like to learn more about the study click the button below to read the full article. 

Have you checked the balance
of your Brilliant Baby CSA
at my529.org?

You should check your account periodically. If you move, you can change your address online to keep receiving the statements at your home. Additionally, getting in the habit of checking your account helps remind you that this account exists. Remember, when your baby graduates from high school, they can use this money for college or trade school! If you have questions about how to log into your account, text “Help” to 510-726-7809, and one of our team members will get back to you very soon.