Funding For Your Special Ed Classroom

Low on funding? It’s no secret that teachers spend much of their own money on classroom needs, even just the necessities! What about for lesson enrichment, hands on experiences, & other opportunities? We do what we have to in order to provide our students with the best education we can. HOWEVER, we all could use extra $$$ for classroom needs.

Here are a few tips on how to get what you need for your classroom!

• Amazon wish list! You can continually add to it as you find things you need. Give this link to parents or link it in your email signature for easy access. Sometimes parents will use this for holiday gifts, teacher appreciation & more.

• Send supply list home to parents. You can ask if they have anything they could donate to your classroom. They can send to school with their child.

• Asking friends and family via email, Facebook, Instagram!! Friends and family understand that teachers spend a lot of their own money, they’ll want to help.

• Contact local businesses in your community. Some places are happy to donate materials, experiences, & more. This is a great way to get items to set up vocational centers or in school work experiences. (I.e. Pizza places-box assembly; dry cleaners- putting cotton layer on hangers; clothing stores like TJ Maxx- sorting hanger size clips etc.)

• Learn about what your county provides for each school. There should be some kind of special education funding/budget that each department/school gets and your program is included! Sometimes your school even has money set aside specifically for your program, so talk to your administration team.

• PTSA donations. Write a letter to your PTSA and see if they can help, most PTSAs have budgeted to help with school and classroom needs. We were able to get some pretty cool tech this way!

• Apply for grants. If your county offers grants to help fund special activities, programs, or projects, APPLY! Even if you think you won’t get it, apply anyway, you may get lucky.

• Post about it on your social media! Lots of times people may be cleaning out and some of those items would be great for classroom activities. For example, some gently used clothes can be used to practice folding, sorting, & hanging.

I hope this is a good list to get you started on finding new ways to fund your classroom. Good luck!!