Families now have the option to use up to $10,000 per year of tax free withdrawals from their 529 plans to pay for elementary and high school qualified educational expenses. Though this offers a degree of flexibility for parents, there is not a whole lot of benefit to putting money into a plan, then taking it out early. You lose the growth from long term compounding and the cost of college is significantly higher than the cost of private or parochial grade school. In addition, New York State at this time has not made equivalent changes to follow the federal changes so at present distributions for non-college related educational expenses would not qualify for preferential treatment.
