Mississippi Teachers Get $748 Each for Classroom Supplies, Delivered by Digital Wallet
The Mississippi Department of Education makes state Education Enhancement Funds available to all public school districts on Wednesday, July 15, for teachers to purchase instructional supplies for their classes throughout the school year.
Each eligible teacher has been allocated $748 in EEF funds for the 2026-27 school year. For the first time, the funds are being provided to teachers through a digital wallet platform. Teachers will access the money through ClassWallet, a platform built for instructional supply funds, and may purchase items at any point during the school year until April 30, 2027.
The department said the platform will enable teachers to track their spending and automatically collect receipts, reducing the administrative burden on district staff.
State law requires districts to give teachers access to their EEF teaching supply funds by August 1. The Legislature passed a law in 2022 moving the deadline from September 1 to August 1, in response to the increasing number of districts shifting to earlier school start dates.
“The timeline from when MDE receives our state appropriation on July 1 to delivering these funds to teachers is very tight, especially for districts that start school in July,” said Dr. Lance Evans, state superintendent of education. “MDE made the decision to move to a digital wallet system to give teachers access to their funds as early as possible. We based our decision on input from district business managers and EEF card administrators from across the state.”
Districts are responsible for activating the accounts once they receive the funds and for ensuring all teachers are trained through a live or recorded webinar. Teachers are not required to attend a live session to activate their accounts and can instead review a recorded webinar posted on the MDE website on July 14. Live training sessions will be held throughout July.
Teachers may use their ClassWallet accounts to purchase items online from more than 160 vendors, including big-box retailers and companies specializing in literacy, early childhood education, special education and science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Teachers may request the addition of local vendors through their district card administrators or business managers. Local vendors may either complete ClassWallet’s onboarding process to join the national online marketplace, or seek MDE approval to allow teachers to shop with personal funds and submit purchases for reimbursement.
The Legislature appropriated $25 million in EEF teaching supply funds for fiscal year 2027. The department noted that many other states do not have programs like Mississippi’s that give teachers money to buy supplemental instructional materials for their individual classrooms.
“The MDE is grateful to the Legislature for continuing to provide Mississippi teachers with money to purchase materials that directly support student learning,” Evans said.