Virginia to Issue Learning Recovery Grants Via ClassWallet

The Virginia Department of Education will award learning recovery grants as part of a $30 million federal initiative aimed at helping K-12 students make up lost instruction time from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a news release from ClassWallet, the vendor selected to track, report and facilitate the grants.

The state will allocate microgrants of $3,000 to qualifying students whose family incomes are less than 300 percent of the federal poverty level, and $1,500 to all other qualifying students. The news release said those students will receive a ClassWallet account which they can access from any device and use to buy educational materials and services.

“ClassWallet’s leading digital wallet technology provides confidence that the funds are helping Virginia families and making the impact for children the program is designed to have,” Jamie Rosenberg, ClassWallet CEO and founder, said in a public statement. “It’s the heartbeat of our brand. We are eager to support the Virginia Department of Education by implementing digital wallets to unlock the full potential of these public funds toward maximizing opportunity for student success.”

The Virginia Department of Education’s contract with ClassWallet follows a similar deal the company made with the Washington State Board of Education last September.

Founded in 2014, ClassWallet is a digital wallet technology platform for federal, state and local education and government agencies, counting 6,200 schools across 27 states as customers. The Miami-based company’s marketplace of suppliers and learning curricula includes Office Depot, Staples, Scholastic, School Specialty, Lakeshore Learning and various other companies, according to the news release.