MIAMI and CONCORD, N.H : The State of New Hampshire’s Department of Education has selected Miami-based ClassWallet to administer its highly innovative ReKINDling Curiosity Program. The program is designed to provide a summer camp experience for children with disabilities or those from low-income families who have been adversely affected by COVID-19 schooling disruptions.
The program was established by Governor Christopher T. Sununu with $3 million in federal CARES Act funds and distributed using the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund. It will allow nearly 3,000 qualified students statewide to receive a one-time grant of between $350 to $650 to attend a New Hampshire-approved overnight or day youth recreation camp. The Department of Education estimates a $500 camp fee will pay for a one-week summer enrichment program in New Hampshire.
The program was developed by the Department of Education to help alleviate some of the trauma resulting from the pandemic and the resulting changeover to remote and hybrid education instruction models. Its summer enrichment opportunities are intended to allow students to return to school in the fall with a rekindled curiosity, excitement and anticipation.
How the Program Works
ClassWallet is a financial technology company providing a suite of integrated payment, purchasing and reimbursement solutions for the K-12 education market. It will provide and manage its online FamilyWallet portal and allow New Hampshire-approved youth recreation camps to be offered in the system as providers. It will also enable families to register for the program and submit Department of Education-required documentation to verify student eligibility and the corresponding youth recreation camp fees for which each family will be eligible. Once approved, the FamilyWallet system will permit families to select their preferred provider and ClassWallet will process the fee payment directly to the youth recreation camp.
“Our ReKINDling Curiosity Program is all about helping to alleviate the social, emotional and mental impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on some of our most vulnerable school children,” said Frank Edelblut, Commissioner of Education, State of New Hampshire. “We’re grateful to the team at ClassWallet for working with us to administer the program in a timely and transparent manner to help carry out the vision of our governor in assisting as many needy school children as possible.”
FamilyWallet leverages the ClassWallet spending management platform to provide virtual wallets to grant and scholarship program recipients. This enables them to pay for tuition, goods and services. The platform allows parents to upload purchase orders and receipts, pay invoices, manage purchasing and pre-paid cards 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.
“The New Hampshire ReKINDling Curiosity Program is the first of its kind and we are grateful to the Governor and the Department of Education for selecting us to implement and manage the program for them on a turnkey basis,” said Jamie Rosenberg, ClassWallet founder and CEO. “Our company’s DNA is all about setting-up and administering specialized funding programs to assist parents, students and school districts. We’re pleased that our financial technology platform will be able to support such an important student population in New Hampshire.”
In addition to New Hampshire, ClassWallet has helped distribute federal education funding in Texas, Oklahoma and Idaho. It also runs programs in Arizona and North Carolina and is under consideration in several additional states. The company’s original product offering, TeacherWallet, is currently in use in more than 165,000 classrooms spread across 3,600 schools in 20 states.