Indiana has selected ClassWallet to help it track, report and facilitate distribution of $87 million in federal and state funds to non-public school students and their families, as well as families of special education students, impacted by COVID-19 learning disruptions.
The first program, called The Indiana Education Scholarship Account (ESA) program, is designed to support students with disabilities by helping them access the educational environment that best meets their learning needs. It is funded by the state and provides up to $9 million for tuition and fees and for pre-approved educational expenses including therapies, services, tutors and other educational expenses from a list of approved study areas.
The second program, Indiana's Emergency Assistance for Nonpublic Schools (EANS II) program, is funded with $78 million in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan and may be used by qualified non-public schools for such services and assistance as sanitization, personal protective equipment, COVID testing, educational technology and connectivity.
ClassWallet previously supported Indiana with its EANS I program. The fintech company has extensive experience in helping states to track, report and facilitate the distribution of funds for EANS, EANS II, K-12 student scholarships and family microgrants, and other federal and state programs. Its digital wallet solution is used in 27 states and 19 state agencies across 6,200 schools serving 4.1 million students and growing.
"ClassWallet will be a fantastic resource for the State of Indiana and its students," said Indiana Treasurer of State Kelly Mitchell, who oversees the Indiana ESA program. "Our statutory duty is to provide Hoosier students and their families flexibility in tailoring their educations while protecting the funds from being misused. ClassWallet has helped us put guardrails in place so that not a single dollar will go out without my team approving the expense."
The ClassWallet spending management platform provides digital wallets to grant and scholarship program recipients. This enables them to pay for tuition, goods and services. The platform allows parents to upload invoices and receipts, make payments, manage purchasing and receive automated reimbursements with broad transparency – all while protecting data and privacy. Each state determines the rules and restrictions for its program which are then implemented by ClassWallet.
"ClassWallet is a proven performer for states like Indiana to distribute monies from a range of federal and state funding sources," said Jamie Rosenberg, CEO, ClassWallet. "Indiana's choice of our platform will help many families with pre-K-12 and special needs students to get the assistance they need without unnecessary paperwork or disbursement delays."