Preparing children for the school year, especially in regions close to the war zone, remains a difficult process. A mixed or remote format, limited resources, damaged infrastructure and unstable financial situation of families create an additional burden on the education system. The most vulnerable are families with first-graders, for whom the beginning of education requires organizational, material and psychological efforts at the same time. Under these conditions, government decisions on targeted support have a direct impact on children’s readiness to start the school year. One of the initiatives in this direction is the implementation of the “Student’s Package” program, which provides one-time financial assistance to families of children entering the first grade.
What the program provides and how to get help
“Student’s package” is a one-time financial aid provided by the state to families of children who are going to school for the first time. The payment is 5,000 hryvnias for each first-grader. The money can be used exclusively for the purchase of goods related to the educational process – clothes, shoes, school supplies and other children’s goods.
Recipients can be one of the parents or another authorized person — the legal representative of the child who is a citizen of Ukraine. The aid has a targeted purpose and includes restrictions: it is impossible to withdraw cash or transfer funds to other accounts. It is necessary to use the amount within 180 calendar days from the moment of its enrollment. After that, unused funds are automatically returned to the state budget.
Assistance is issued after the child is enrolled in the first grade. It should take place through the AICOM electronic system, which is used by general secondary education institutions. After confirmation of enrollment, the information is automatically transferred to the Pension Fund of Ukraine.
The Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine, Oksana Zholnovych, informed about further steps in detail. She noted that after the data is submitted to the Pension Fund, parents will receive a push notification in the “Action” application with an offer to apply for “Student’s Package” assistance. To do this, you need to confirm your consent, select a bank and open “Diya.Kartka”. Funds will be credited to it.
Purposeful use of aid
The program has a strict target orientation. Funds can be spent only on goods for children – primarily school clothes, shoes, backpacks, stationery, sports uniforms, etc. You can buy these things only in stores officially participating in the program. Other categories of goods – even in the same stores – cannot be paid for with this card: transactions will be automatically blocked.
Cash withdrawals, transfers to other accounts, use of funds outside the designated points of sale – all this is technically limited. Thus, the state controls the use of funds as intended and excludes the possibility of non-targeted expenses.
There are certain situations in which a family cannot receive a payment under this program. Assistance is not provided if the child did not start school after enrollment, lives abroad or in a temporarily occupied territory.
However, it is possible to receive assistance in the event of the child’s return to Ukraine – both from abroad and from the de-occupied territory. In such cases, when the fact of the start of education is confirmed, the family acquires the right to participate in the program again. Accordingly, the notification system in “Action” is activated after updating the data.
Technical implementation: interaction between educational institutions, PFU and “Diya”
The key element of the technical implementation of the program is the automated exchange of information between the electronic enrollment system (AICOM), the Pension Fund and the “Diya” application. It is this connection that allows you to avoid duplication of applications, reduce the number of physical applications and speed up the process of crediting funds.
In fact, the initiative is implemented according to the same principle that was already applied in the “eSupport” programs or social payments during the relocation of IDPs. Parents are not required to confirm their status – everything happens automatically after the child is enrolled in school. In case of technical failures or lack of access to digital services, an offline alternative remains available – a personal appeal to the Pension Fund.
In cases where the family does not use the “Diya” application or does not have the technical ability to use the digital channel, an application for assistance can be submitted in person at any service center of the Pension Fund of Ukraine. In this case, you need to specify the account to which the funds will be credited.
You can apply for assistance until November 15 through the “Action” application or in paper form by contacting the service center of the Pension Fund of Ukraine. A one-time cash payment is credited to a special current account to which “Diya.Kartka” is linked, opened in an authorized bank. At the request of the recipient, the funds can be transferred to another current account with a special mode of use, opened in the same bank. The selected account is indicated in the application for assistance under the “Student’s Package” program.
The situation in the Kharkiv region
At the beginning of the 2025–2026 school year, 11,581 children are expected to be enrolled in the first grades in the Kharkiv region. These are official data of the regional military administration. Due to the war situation, the majority of students will not study in the traditional face-to-face format: 7,240 children will be covered by distance learning, another 4,341 — mixed. A full return to full-time form is impossible due to security risks, damaged infrastructure and a lack of resources for the stable operation of educational institutions.
Under these conditions, preparing a child for school requires not only organizational, but also significant financial costs from parents. This applies to clothes, shoes, school supplies, backpacks and additional means necessary for learning in new conditions. That is why a new form of targeted state support was proposed for families with first-graders — the “Student’s Package” program.
