Classroom Enhancement Package - Classroom Supplies

The Legislature approved funds so every full-time classroom teacher in Idaho will have the authority to spend up to $300 a year on classroom supplies for their individual classrooms.

The Superintendent of Public Instruction has two goals for the classroom supplies funding:

1. Every teacher must have the authority to spend all of the $300 a year on classroom supplies. The funding for classroom supplies funding cannot be used at the building level and is not subject to negotiation at the local level.

2. School districts and charter schools may use this funding to supplant money previously spent on classroom supplies and materials for individual teachers. If a school district or charter school has already given its teachers the authority to spend money on classroom supplies in past years, the school district or charter school may supplant the funds it spent on classroom supplies in the past with the new state funds, freeing up their current spending on supplies for other needs, as long as every teacher has at least $300 a year to spend on classroom supplies.

Distribution:

This distribution will be based on the 2009-2010 teacher FTE, which will not be available until February 2009. Instructional support staff (e.g. counselors, librarians) are not eligible to receive classroom supplies funding in the 2009-2010 school year. In order to distribute funds early in the school year, an advance payment of 75% will be made in August 2009 based on prior year teacher FTE, or in the case of new public charter schools, estimated teacher FTE. Once 2009-2010 teacher FTE is available, school district/charter school distributions will be calculated. The final payment will be the difference between these amounts and the advance payments. Budget $300 per teacher FTE.

Permissible Uses:

The $300 allowance MAY be spent on the following supplies:

  • Arts/crafts
  • Educational activities/Educational games
  • Bulletin board materials or posters
  • Science lab materials (including food as long as it is not used for edible purposes)
  • Classroom storage and organization items
  • Manipulatives
  • Teaching aides, such as flashcards or wall pockets
  • Incentives
  • Rulers, protractors, calculators or stop watches
  • Maps, globes, atlases (unless the atlases come in a classroom set, in which case school districts should use Textbook funding to buy the sets.)
  • Writing utensils
  • Dry erase markers or chalk
  • Notebook paper or construction paper
  • Notebooks
  • Small technology equipment, such as cameras, film and photo processing, TVs, DVDs, VCRs, projectors and printers. (Teachers may only use classroom supplies money to buy printer cartridges for the printers in their personal classrooms.)
  • Notes and cards

The $300 allowance MAY NOT be spent on the following supplies:

  • Copier paper
  • Printer cartridges (Teachers may only use classroom supplies money to buy printer cartridges for the printers in their personal classrooms.)
  • Food used for edible purposes (Food is permissible to purchase if used in science classrooms for experiments or for functional education activities related to special education. In both cases, the activities must be tied to the curriculum.)
  • Postage
  • Furniture (e.g. chairs, stools)
  • Field trips

The Superintendent of Public Instruction discourages the pooling of money among teachers to buy large-ticket items until individual classroom needs have been met. The money is intended for each individual teacher to use. The Superintendent encourages school districts to carry over these funds from year to year and discourages use-it-or-lose-it spending.

Supplanting Funds:

School districts and public charter schools may use the classroom supplies funding to supplant state funds, not federal funds, currently being spent on classroom supplies as long as the funds currently allocated to teachers for classroom supplies give the teacher the authority to spend the $300 for their individual classrooms.