Young students will get an extra $25 gift this month if they log in for the first time to a savings account provided by the Boston Saves initiative.
The program already gives $50 in a seed savings account to every eligible student in the city’s public school system from K2 kindergarten through second grade.
The January-only incentive is meant to get more families to take advantage of the free money. Boston.com reported that more than 11,000 students are eligible, but only about 2,750 families had actually logged in as of Sunday.
The accounts become available when a student graduates high school, and are meant to help pay for college or job training.
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The city adds another $5 if families save $25 of their own money each quarter, and there are other incentives, like reading programs, that provide an additional $5 per quarter.
"I read to my kids all the time," said Maimouna Bah, a mother of two kids in Boston public schools. "So it’s really a win-win for us."
