New Indiana Law Expands Banking Access for Teens in Foster Care

A new Indi­ana law makes it eas­i­er for 16- and 17-year-olds in fos­ter care — and eman­ci­pat­ed minors — to open check­ing or sav­ings accounts in their own names with the approval from the judge over­see­ing their care. 

Until now, young peo­ple under age 18 typ­i­cal­ly need­ed a par­ent, guardian or fos­ter par­ent to cosign on a bank account. That legal bar­ri­er left many youth in fos­ter care unable to access direct deposit, online bank­ing or use of a main­stream finan­cial insti­tu­tion to begin sav­ing mon­ey. Instead, they often had to rely sole­ly on cash, pay high check-cash­ing fees or use pre­paid deb­it cards with steep charges.

The law, which took effect in July 2025, gives young peo­ple safer, ear­li­er and more inde­pen­dent oppor­tu­ni­ties to man­age mon­ey and build essen­tial finan­cial skills. With a judge’s approval, these teens can now deposit earn­ings, track spend­ing and begin build­ing finan­cial com­pe­ten­cy — all while remain­ing con­nect­ed to case­work­ers and sup­port­ive adults who can offer guidance.

Ini­ti­at­ed by Youth Voice

This pol­i­cy change began with a sim­ple question.

At a spring 2023 lunch event host­ed by State Rep. Chris Camp­bell (D‑West Lafayette), Rowan Grae — a youth for­mer­ly in fos­ter care and advo­cate with the Indi­ana Fos­ter Youth Alliance — raised the issue of bank­ing access. The ques­tion helped inspire Camp­bell to intro­duce leg­is­la­tion in 2024 and again in 2025, when it passed.

Grae and oth­er youth pro­vid­ed tes­ti­mo­ny and insight to help pol­i­cy­mak­ers and banks under­stand why inde­pen­dent access pri­or to age 18 matters.

“A lot of youth in fos­ter care don’t grow up with a chance to prac­tice man­ag­ing mon­ey,” said Grae. ​“Being able to open an account with­out a joint account own­er would’ve let me have more con­trol and prac­tice finan­cial respon­si­bil­i­ty soon­er. Shar­ing our expe­ri­ences helps human­ize youth in fos­ter care and show law­mak­ers how their deci­sions affect our lives.”

A Step Toward Finan­cial Readiness

This mile­stone in finan­cial access builds on efforts in Indi­ana to pre­pare young peo­ple in fos­ter care for long-term sta­bil­i­ty — most notably through Oppor­tu­ni­ty Pass­port^®. Launched in 2003 by the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Jim Casey Youth Oppor­tu­ni­ties Ini­tia­tive^®, the pro­gram com­bines three core com­po­nents: finan­cial edu­ca­tion, open­ing a bank account and matched sav­ings to help par­tic­i­pants meet goals to sup­port their future. Cre­at­ed in response to young people’s call for real-world finan­cial learn­ing, it remains a cor­ner­stone of the Jim Casey Ini­tia­tive, which will cel­e­brate 25 years of sup­port­ing youth in 2026.

Today, Oppor­tu­ni­ty Pass­port is offered across the coun­try through the Jim Casey Initiative’s net­work of 16 site part­ner orga­ni­za­tions and has helped more than 21,000 young peo­ple learn how to make sound finan­cial deci­sions, set goals, and save to achieve them. Par­tic­i­pants have col­lec­tive­ly saved over $12.6 mil­lion, which local part­ner sites have matched — result­ing in $30 mil­lion invest­ed toward mile­stones such as buy­ing a car, pay­ing tuition, or secur­ing housing. 

In Indi­ana, Fos­ter Suc­cess serves as the site lead orga­ni­za­tion for the Jim Casey Ini­tia­tive and admin­is­ters the sav­ings inter­ven­tion. As of 2025, the state has 299 active par­tic­i­pants. Over time, par­tic­i­pants in Indi­ana have pur­chased more than 220 assets, saved $342,000 col­lec­tive­ly and lever­aged match­es to reach a total of $761,000. Vehi­cle pur­chas­es remain the top goal, with cred­it-build­ing invest­ments also on the rise. 

In Indi­ana, Oppor­tu­ni­ty Pass­port par­tic­i­pants must be age 18 or old­er. After com­plet­ing a finan­cial lit­er­a­cy cur­ricu­lum, Fos­ter Suc­cess sup­ports par­tic­i­pants in select­ing a bank, mak­ing an ini­tial deposit and nav­i­gat­ing their options. The non­prof­it then match­es their sav­ings when they’re ready to make an approved invest­ment that meets their finan­cial goals. 

With the new law in place, more par­tic­i­pants will arrive with a bank account already in hand — and some expe­ri­ence man­ag­ing their mon­ey — or will be able to access these tools soon­er. Grae, an Oppor­tu­ni­ty Pass­port alum, is among the young peo­ple who have used the pro­gram to build toward finan­cial stability.

“At Fos­ter Suc­cess, we make sure what we bring for­ward is root­ed in what young peo­ple tell us and show us they need,” said Mag­gie Stevens, the organization’s pres­i­dent and CEO. ​“The fact that the push for this law orig­i­nat­ed in a con­ver­sa­tion with a young leader shows what hap­pens when orga­ni­za­tions and pol­i­cy­mak­ers are invest­ed in listening.”

Part­ner­ing With Banks

To sup­port the law’s imple­men­ta­tion, Fos­ter Suc­cess worked with the Indi­ana Bankers Asso­ci­a­tion and the Indi­ana Cred­it Union League to edu­cate bank staff and clar­i­fy the doc­u­men­ta­tion need­ed for youth younger than age 18.

A sim­i­lar col­lab­o­ra­tive approach has led to suc­cess in Maine. In 2024, youth-informed advo­ca­cy led to a direct part­ner­ship between Maine state lead­ers and a com­mu­ni­ty cred­it union. Togeth­er, they estab­lished safe­guards allow­ing youth under 18 to open bank accounts with­out a guardian’s sig­na­ture. This fol­lowed a law change in 2023 that elim­i­nat­ed lia­bil­i­ty con­cerns for banks and cred­it unions and empow­ered them to set their own stan­dards for minors open­ing bank accounts.

“Whether through pol­i­cy or prac­tice change, cre­at­ing safe path­ways to finan­cial capa­bil­i­ty for youth is incred­i­bly valu­able,” said Sandy Wilkie, a senior fel­low with the Foundation’s Fam­i­ly Well-Being Strat­e­gy Group who man­ages its youth finan­cial capa­bil­i­ty ini­tia­tives. ​“It is espe­cial­ly notable that the change began with youth lead­er­ship and strong, respon­sive part­ner­ships between child wel­fare, pol­i­cy­mak­ers, com­mu­ni­ty and business.”

Read the Oppor­tu­ni­ty Pass­port fact sheet