MDE to make teaching supply funds available to districts July 15 through new digital wallet platform

The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) will make available state Education Enhancement Funds (EEF) to all public-school districts on July 15 for teachers to purchase instructional supplies for their classes throughout the school year. For the first time, EEF funds are being provided to teachers through a digital wallet platform.

Each eligible teacher has been allocated $748 in EEF funds for the 2026-27 school year. Teachers will access these funds through ClassWallet, a digital wallet platform built for instructional supply funds. Teachers may purchase instructional items using their EEF accounts at any point during the school year until April 30, 2027.

The digital platform will enable teachers to track their spending and automatically collect receipts, reducing the administrative burden on district staff.

Mississippi law requires districts to give teachers access to their EEF teaching supply funds by August 1. The Legislature in 2022 passed a law to move 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."

After districts receive the EEF funds for teaching supplies, they are responsible for activating the accounts and ensuring all teachers are trained through a live or recorded webinar. Teachers are not required to attend a live training session to activate their accounts. Instead, they can review the recorded webinar that will be posted on the MDE website on July 14. Live training sessions will be held throughout July with expanded capacity for participation. MDE will regularly post additional information on the EEF card page of the MDE website.

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 (STEM), among other subjects. Teachers may request the addition of local vendors by submitting their requests to their district card administrators and/or business managers.

Local vendors have two options to participate. They may complete ClassWallet's onboarding process and, upon meeting all requirements, be added to the national online marketplace for shopping. Alternatively, local vendors may seek approval from MDE to allow teachers to use their personal funds to shop and submit their purchases to ClassWallet for reimbursement.

The Mississippi Legislature has appropriated $25 million in EEF teaching supply funds for FY27. 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.

Find all MDE news releases at mdek12.org/news.