Children’s Savings Accounts

This program helps students, and their families, aspire to college, prepare for it, and develop a strong network of resources and support to achieve their post-secondary goals. 

THA tenants who are 18 and younger are eligible to enroll if they are a resident living in one of our THA managed properties:

The program offers: 

How It Works

Children’s Savings Accounts are managed through the Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) program, a Washington 529 college savings plan. The savings in a GET account grow tax-free and remain tax-free when your student uses it for a variety of education expenses at schools in the United States and abroad.

Washington State guarantees that the value of the account will keep pace with tuition growth of the highest priced Washington public college (UW and WSU). Your child can attend any public, private, community, technical/vocation school in the United States, and even schools abroad, and use their funds to pay for a variety of education expenses. 

Students earn $500 into their GET savings account by: 

You can make contributions to an account at any time, in any amount. The GET accounts act much like those in our traditional CSA program but with the added feature of a guaranteed value for education expenses that will keep pace with inflation and rising costs. 

A brief history of THA’s Children’s Savings Account program 

In the Fall of 2015, the Tacoma Housing Authority (THA) began offering children’s savings accounts (CSAs) for the children of the Salishan neighborhood in Tacoma, Wash.  In November 2021, THA expanded this program to include families served within its 14 managed properties. This program helps students, and their families, aspire to college, prepare for it, and develop a strong network of resources and support to achieve their post-secondary goals.  

The program’s contribution to the student’s account will be available once a student graduates from high school and enrolls in a qualified college or training program. The money will be available for educational expenses such as books, tuition, fees, room and board. 

The program helps to provide financial education and tools for families, including opportunities to learn about debt and credit management and banking services.  

As companion goals, the program seeks to improve access of financial education for students and parents. 

THA will collaborate with financial service providers to bring educational and coaching resources into the family properties.  

Parents will be provided with resources and notices of upcoming events for financial education classes available in the area.  

The program will also help encourage parents to become banked (if not already doing so). Financial training of this sort is more effective when the children and the parents have real money to contemplate, as the CSA will give them. 

THA plans this effort in collaboration with Tacoma Public Schools (TPS), Prosperity Now, initial funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Bamford Foundation, Heritage Bank, Sequoia Foundation and other funders and social service partners in Tacoma.