Before there were Trump Accounts, SEED OK gave some newborns $1,000 — how researchers say the grants affected kids

President Donald Trump speaks about Trump Accounts at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C., Jan. 28, 2026. Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images Soon-to-launch Trump Accounts are a new vehicle for long-term savings and investing geared toward children, but they are not the first of their kind. In 2007, thousands of families in Oklahoma were randomly selected to participate in a statewide college savings initiative. In many ways, Saving for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Downpayment for Oklahoma Kids, also known as SEED OK, offers a bird's-eye view of so-called child development accounts , or CDAs, and their potential. About half of the newborns in the program received a $1,000 grant deposited in an Oklahoma 529 college savings account . The other half did not receive an account or the initial deposit. A 2021 analysis of the experiment by the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis, which designed and implemented the project in partnership with the Oklahoma State Treasurer's Office, found that families with accounts experienced positive outcomes, ranging from asset accumulation to behavioral changes. For example, children with CDAs were more engaged in their education, and both children and their parents had higher educational expectations, the study found.