21st Century Scholars

Indiana’s 21st Century Scholars program is an early-college promise program designed to make college more affordable for students.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Indiana’s 21st Century Scholars program is an early-college promise program designed to make college more affordable for students. Eligible students who meet requirements receive a two- or four-year scholarship that pays up to 100% tuition at an eligible Indiana college or university.

KEY POINTS

RESOURCES

SHARED WISDOM

  • (Added 12/2/24):  The first round of 21st Century Scholars Automatic Enrollment for the Classes of 2029 and 2030 (current 8th and 7th graders, respectively) have been completed for the 2024-2025 academic year. Please be on the lookout for communications in February/March for confirmation of a second round of automatic enrollment of the 2029 and 2030 cohorts for the 2024-2025 academic year.  You can refer to the webinars Dr. Michelle Ashcraft hosted in October to learn about the legislation of HEA 1449, the enrollment process, and school roles/responsibilities:
  • (Added 11/5/24): Scholar Track Account Creation – CHE Slides
  • (Added 10/22/24, Hilary Deardorff, CHE):  Letters have been mailed to parents/guardians of students who have been automatically enrolled into the 21st Century Scholars Program for the Classes of 2027 and 2028. You can find a copy of the letter here found at the bottom of this page. Letters include information regarding eligibility requirements and next steps. They should be hitting mailboxes this week.  Please connect with your Outreach Coordinator or email schools@che.in.gov with questions! Students and families can be connected to their Outreach Coordinator.
  • (Added 2/17/24, Hilary Deardorff, CHE): 
    • Q: Has anyone seen a paper application yet for this scholarship?  I’m just very concerned that we may have a family who is not on free or reduced lunches but is eligible.
    • A: We will release the application worksheet used to assist in the enrollment of 21st Century Scholars students after letters notifying students and families of their automatic enrollment status. After the passage of House Enrolled Act (HEA) 1449-2023, current 7th- and 8th-grade Hoosier students who are financially eligible for Free and Reduced Price Lunch will be automatically enrolled in the 21st Century Scholars Program. If students do not receive Free and Reduced Price Lunch, but meet the income guidelines, parents or guardians can enroll them from the time they enter 7th grade to June 30 of their 8th-grade year. Note: We have not yet started enrolling current 7th graders. Additionally, we will have updates forthcoming about auto enrollment as well as processes for Community Eligibility Provision schools, schools that do not offer lunch, and schools that do not use STNs. For current 8th graders, if you have confirmed their status in ScholarTrack, you may:
      • Encourage parents to create ScholarTrack accounts and apply on behalf of their student, OR
      • Any school staff with access to ScholarTrack as a ‘School User’ or ‘School Admin’ designation can help families apply with an income application on their dashboard, OR
      • You connect families with an Outreach Coordinator to help them enroll. We are happy to assist. Any emails you send through our website to a region with a vacancy will have an email response from our Senior Outreach Coordinators or myself.
  • (Added 12/5/23, Hilary Deardorff, CHE): Just a few reminders:
    • 21st Century Scholars must create their accounts, accept their pledge, and complete all Scholar Success Program requirements by June 30th of their senior year in order to activate their award. We are highly encouraging that 21st Century Scholars create their accounts and accept their pledges by the end of their 9th grade year for students to stay on track with their Scholar Success Program requirements. Many of our Outreach Coordinators are working with middle schools to get ahead of the goal.
    • We are currently working to fix an issue with students being “stuck” on the pledge page once they create that account. While the pledge is being accepted and recorded in ScholarTrack, the student’s page will not advance. The work-around for now is to add in a high school in the student details of a student’s account until that fix is addressed by our vendor that hosts the ScholarTrack site. Please reach out directly to your Outreach Coordinator if your students are experiencing issues creating their accounts and accepting their pledge.
    • If you are interested in connecting with your Outreach Coordinator to set up time to work with your middle school or high school students, we are happy to come in and facilitate. Your designated Outreach Coordinator is your first point of contact for all things related to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. We also share these designated e-mails that ensure you reach the correct team members in the central office in Indianapolis when you have questions.
  • (Added 10/31/23, Michelle Ashcraft, CHE): The electronic application in ScholarTrack opened on October 1. However, paper applications have not been released yet and will not be released until all letters have been mailed to auto enrolled students to let them know that they have been enrolled, as we want to avoid unnecessary applications and/or duplicate entries for a student in ScholarTrack. We have also further simplified the application. We are in the process of updating the website you reference below as well as another new landing page that is specifically designed to provide updates about auto enrollment. In the meantime, students who are age 13 or older should be directed to create a ScholarTrack account (using STN) and will be able to view their auto enrollment status. If they are not auto enrolled and are currently in 7th or 8th grade, then they can apply via ScholarTrack or await the updated paper application. Questions about 21st Century Scholars are best address in the following ways:
  • (Added 9/27/23 Michelle Ashcraft CHE): The new https://learnmoreindiana.org/ has a button in the lower right-hand corner that allows all pages on the site, including those about 21st Century Scholars, to be translated to four other languages. We will be able to immediately provide 21st Century Scholars materials in Spanish and are working toward updates in other languages as we have provided in the past.
  • (CounselorTalk, July 24, 2023): 
    • Q: Has anyone seen the updated applications for this school year?
      • (Michelle Ashcraft, CHE): A: CHE is working on automatically enrolling all eligible students. As a result, we are not yet ready to release the updated paper applications for 21st Century Scholars. While auto enrollment will place the students in ScholarTrack in “Approved Pending Pledge” status, the students will not be placed on school rosters until we get an updated file from the Indiana Department of Education to upload into our system in August. That way we have the most accurate school roster and address information possible in case changes have been made since May. Enrollment letters will be mailed to students and their families in September, and we will share a sample letter, so you all know what that looks like. When we share updated instructions with school partners pertaining to enrollment, we will ask that you direct students to sign up for ScholarTrack accounts and check their enrollment status BEFORE submitting an application. This is because most students should be auto enrolled, and we do not want to create duplicate accounts for students in the system that will later have to be merged. We will also share updates about how we have simplified the ScholarTrack account creation process. We will work with our Indiana Department of Education partners to communicate the updated enrollment worksheet, further instructions, and related support materials across all appropriate channels as we near the start of school. We will also have our Outreach Coordinators reach out to all their school partners with the information and details on how they can assist with ScholarTrack account creation and Scholar Success Program completion.
      • The first cohort to participate in automatic enrollment is the 2027 cohort (8th graders during 2022-23).
  • (CounselorTalk, February, 2023 – Barbie Martin, CHE):
    • Q: If a parent is not sure if they are eligible for whatever reason (has had multiple different jobs in the same year or for another reason) can I still input the student’s information into the system and it just get denied? I don’t want them to miss out just because the parent isn’t sure, but also don’t want to get in trouble for inputting their information. A: With the new streamlined enrollment, there is no way to enter income anymore. Parents need to verify that they meet income guidelines for this program year based on household size.
    • Q: Can eligibility status change? For example, if a student is denied right now but a parent loses that job down the road, could a student possibly become eligible as long as I have enrolled their information? A: Under statute, students must meet income eligibility while in 7th or 8th grade to be enrolled in the program through the income guidelines. If the family income changes after 8th grade, they cannot be enrolled in the program, even if they previously applied and were denied. They may be eligible for the Frank O’Bannon grant through their FAFSA filing, but they cannot enroll in 21st Century Scholars. They only way enroll in high school is if the student is placed in foster care.
    • Q: Students in split households, which parent do they put down? A: For split households, you should use income for the parent who claims the child on their taxes. We verify income eligibility with the Indiana Department of Revenue.
  • (CounselorTalk, December, 2022): If you aren’t sure who your outreach coordinator is, you can check the map on our website: https://cdn.learnmoreindiana.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Outreach-Map-with-Central-Office-5-17-22.pdf.  The map shows the regions by county and provides contact information for your representative. For more information, contact Barbie Martin at BMartin@che.in.gov
  • (CounselorTalk, May 2022) Q: I got an email that said students need to upgrade their account.  When my kids log on, there is no “Upgrade My Account” button in the drop down box.  Does anyone know about this??
    • A: (from Barbie Martin, Assistant Commissioner for Outreach, Indiana Commission for Higher Education): In order for the Upgrade Account option to appear in the dropdown menu, a student must be logged in with a limited user account. If they have logged in with a temporary PIN instead of their username and password, that option will not be available for security reasons.  If they are logged in with a PIN, they need to log out and log back in with their username and password. Once they do that, they will see the option to upgrade in the dropdown menu.  If a student has logged in with a PIN but has never actually created an account at all, they can simply create a full user account. They will go to the ScholarTrack to the login page and click Create Account at the bottom. They will choose Student and then when the form comes up to complete, they will choose “I have my SSN and DOB and I want to create a full account. (for more information/questions, contact Barbie at BMartin@che.in.gov)
  • (Counselortalk, January 2022) Q: I was wondering if you could tell me ways you push out information for 21st Century Scholars and strategies you use to get parents to participate/sign-up. There is a lack of interest at my school and I would like to be more proactive.

CONTENT FEEDBACK

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