Glendale Unified School District

Overview

We are dedicated to providing every child in our district with the resources they need to reach their higher education goals. One such resource is saving for college. Research shows that having a college savings account is strongly associated with higher rates of college attendance.

In the spring of 2020, Glendale Unified launched the “College Success Fund” by opening college savings accounts for first graders in the 2019-2020 school year. This grant-funded initiative has continued to operate, with new first-grade cohorts receiving College Success Fund accounts and introductory deposits.

Parallel to this effort, in 2022, the State of California created a new college savings program known as CalKIDS. These programs run independently from one another and some GUSD students may benefit from one or both programs. The information on this page will help you verify and access your accounts.

How Do I Find Out If My Child Is Eligible/ Enrolled

1- The State of California CalKIDS Accounts Program

All California newborns from 2022 onward automatically receive a CalKIDS account, which includes an initial seed funding of $25 (or $100 for those born after July 1, 2023) provided by the State of California. Additionally, certain public school students who meet eligibility criteria may have CalKIDS accounts with a $500 contribution from the State. To check eligibility and learn more, please watch the following short video for details:

2-The GUSD College Success Fund Program

All GUSD students who were enrolled in first grade during the 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 school years are beneficiaries of this program and have already received an introductory contribution in their name. GUSD plans to add additional cohorts of students to this program. For more details, please watch the following video:

What Are My Next Steps?

To keep track of the funds in either program, you’ll need to register and log in to the online portal for each program. College Success Fund and CalKIDS have different access portals.

GUSD: If you haven’t registered your account on the GUSD online portal, watch the video “Accessing my College Success Fund Program Account” on this page to learn how to register. Click here to register your account

CalKIDS: If you haven’t already registered your account on the CalKIDS portal, watch the video “Accessing my CalKIDS Account” on this page. Click here to register your CalKIDS account.

Recommended Steps

Open an individual ScholarShare 529 plan for your child’s college savings (one account per child). Click here to register for a SchoolShare 529 plan. Below, you can find a step-by-step guide to setting up a 529 plan.
How to open an account-English How to open an account-Spanish
After completing step 3, you can link your personal ScholarShare 529 plan(s) to one or both program portals to view everything in one place. Information on linking personal 529 plans will be provided on your portal screen.

Questions? Contact CSA@GUSD.net