Oklahoma Teachers Receive $6 Million for CLASS 2.0 Grants

OKLAHOMA CITY (Nov. 4, 2022) – More than 6,000 teachers across Oklahoma received $6 million in funding this week for hand-picked learning tools and school supplies through the second round of a grant initiative created by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister and the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE).

Using federal pandemic relief funds, OSDE partnered with the national nonprofit DonorsChoose to award public school teachers with Classroom Learning and School Supplies (CLASS 2.0) grants up to $800 each. The DonorsChoose website portal opened at 4 p.m. each day from Nov. 1 to 3 for teachers to submit their classroom projects, based on the location of their school districts.

The full amount of funding was expended each day in a matter of hours. In all, $6 million was spent in just under 24 hours.

“The tremendous demand we saw in CLASS 2.0 to fund classroom projects underscores how stretched resources are for Oklahoma educators,” Hofmeister said. “Our teachers urgently need classroom tools and funding to do the amazing work they do in educating our children every day.”

Grants were available to teachers on a first-come, first-served basis. Funds were divided into three equitable amounts and distributed to teachers serving students in each Oklahoma area code.

All full-time PreK-12 teachers – including school counselors, reading specialists, media specialists, speech pathologists, physical therapists, and occupational/speech therapists, and other certified faculty whose role is focused on direct, in-person services to students – were eligible to apply. Teacher projects were designed to address student learning, remediation and enrichment needs.

The first round of CLASS grants was administered in February. More than 7,500 Oklahoma classroom teachers in 1,411 schools at 462 districts received learning tools and school supplies through the first CLASS grant initiative.