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Background: Prior to COVID-19, two out of ve people in the US could not cover a $400 emergency Now,many more families are struggling nancially Families with low income often don't seek needed healthcare,risking poor health outcomes Minority families, in particular, suffer health inequities stemming fromdisparities in social capital, income, and education Higher education improves long-term economic success,but low-income families have difficulty saving for their children's futures Children's Savings Account (CSA)programs, which provide higher education savings to children in early childhood, have increased families'college expectations and improved mothers' mental health and children's socio-emotional development Methods: We assessed parents' perceptions of and access to preventive healthcare, as well as the educationalgoals they have for their children We conducted qualitative interviews with 13 parents meeting the followingcriteria: (1) at least one child age 3 or younger, (2) maximum income at 185% of the federal poverty level, and(3) no parent with an advanced degree (e g master's) We will interview seven more parents by December 2020 Meanwhile, we designed Early Bird, a rst-of-its-kind health clinic-based CSA program that rewardsfamilies for achieving healthy milestones-such as attending pediatrician and dentist appointments, meetingwith a nancial coach, and enrolling in pre-Kindergarten-with scholarship funds in their children's CSAs Weare launching a 3-year longitudinal randomized study to evaluate this novel model Results: All parentsinterviewed would participate in a milestone-based CSA program through their health clinic All hoped theirchild(ren) would attend college, 85% perceived nancial barriers to higher education, and 69% worried thatnot attending college would limit their child's career Only 23% of participants had savings for college Participants' self-described ethnicities were 85% Hispanic or Latino, 7 5% Black or African American, 7 5%American Indian or Alaska Native, and 7 5% White/Caucasian (1) Philanthropic funds were raised to supportthe launch of Early Bird's pilot serving 300 children, including scholarships up to $500 per child Contractedpartners include a federally-qualied health center, a nancial coaching service provider, a 529 accountmanagement system provider, and a local nonprot that will administer the scholarship accounts Theprogram will launch in 2020 Discussion: Parents with low income desire higher education for their childrenbut struggle to save money This new model aligns short-term achievements during early childhood in health,education, and family nances with long-term goals for higher education and career success This studyinforms a replicable model with potential to improve health, education, and nancial outcomes nationally Early Bird aligns many milestone achievements with the priorities of health insurance payers, which may aidlong-term nancial sustainability Feasibility studies are needed to further assess the model's viability indiffering clinical settings (1) Totals more than 100% due to multi-select answer format |
