Get money for education expenses. Empowering Parents is open for applications

(Idaho Ed News) — The Empowering Parents application window is open, as of Monday.

Families can now apply for their share from the $30 million education microgrant program. Instructions and the online application are available here.

The basic rules haven’t changed.

Families can receive up to $1,000 per student or $3,000 per family. They can use their money to cover a variety of education expenses, such as learning devices and software, curricular materials tutoring, and athletic uniforms and fees.

Households with an adjusted gross income of less than $60,000 have first dibs on the money. After that, the state will accept applications from households with an AGI of less than $75,000. After that, the money will go out on a first-come, first-served basis.

This is the third year for the Empowering Parents program.

Last school year, Idaho awarded 28,962 grants.

Of those grants, 69% went to families with an AGI of $60,000 or less, and more than 86% went to families with an AGI of $75,000 or less.

The State Board of Education did make a recent change on the project. The state rehired Florida-based ClassWallet to run the program and set up an online portal for applications. ClassWallet replaces New York-based Odyssey, which had a turbulent two-year tenure as the Empowering Parents contractor.

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Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on October 21, 2024