Weeks before the first day of school, teachers across Mississippi say state leaders have made it harder for them to access money for school supplies.

Educators have to complete the training before they can spend the money the state gives them on school supplies, but teachers say it’s been difficult to access live training: Online meetings have been filled to capacity. Teachers also say that to buy from local sellers they now have to go through an arduous refund process.

Money for teachers’ school supplies comes from the Education Improvement Fund or procurement card program. EEF, established in 2012, gives each K-12 public school teacher $748 (about $25 million total) to purchase supplies for their classrooms. But educators have long said they receive the money too late for it to be useful. A report released last year by State Auditor Shad White’s office found that a large portion of the money is blocked from teachers as they prepare their classrooms because of the state’s Aug. 1 deadline to activate the cards.

This year, Mississippi Department of Education leaders said they wanted to make the process easier for teachers by giving districts access to the money on July 15 and switching from physical cards to a digital wallet platform.

The agency has a one-year contract worth $573,000 with the ClassWallet platform, according to Shanderia Minor, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.

The new platform is used in several states and allows teachers to purchase supplies directly from pre-approved online suppliers. State Superintendent Lance Evans said ClassWallet streamlines the school supply purchasing process and the change reflects input from school district leaders across Mississippi.

One frustration for teachers is that many of the vendors they buy supplies from are not included in the list of more than 160 vendors on the ClassWallet marketplace, where teachers can spend their EEF money.

According to the state Department of Education’s website, five Mississippi-based vendors are approved for teacher reimbursements, as are Walmart and TeachersPayTeachers, an online marketplace for school supplies.

But teachers have to spend their own money up front. Additionally, your purchase must be approved before you can be refunded.

If teachers want to buy from local suppliers not included on that list, the state Department of Education must first contact that supplier to ensure that they will provide itemized receipts to teachers and that the items will be tax-exempt. The vendor will then be added to the list and teachers will be able to submit refund requests through ClassWallet.

Because of the administrative burden, educators are worried they will have to wait weeks to get their money back.

“The words I’ve heard are ‘insane,’ ‘cumbersome,’ and ‘frustrating,’” said Kelly Riley, executive director of Mississippi Professional Educators. Riley said he has received numerous emails from educators across the state who are confused by the new process and upset by the additional layers of bureaucracy. “There are a lot of unknowns right now.”

White’s office issued a statement on social media Tuesday saying the education agency has “misinformed the public” about the program and called on the state Department of Education to rectify problems with the new process.

“Teachers will again, through no fault of their own, have to spend their own funds to obtain school supplies while being forced to jump through bureaucratic hoops to get the promised money,” the statement read. “This shouldn’t be complicated.”

State Department of Education officials say they have been communicating with districts for months, but some teachers say the change caught them by surprise. Additionally, educators must first attend or view one of five virtual training sessions scheduled this month before their district can activate their accounts.

Many teachers say they were unable to access the first training on July 13.

Marie Lane, a longtime special education teacher in North Mississippi, was one of those teachers waiting for the Zoom meeting to begin Monday.

“At 8:40 a.m., I pulled out my laptop and plugged it in, so excited,” she said. But when the 9 a.m. meeting began, Lane was still waiting to get in. A few minutes later he received a message that the webinar had reached maximum capacity.

Lane hopes to participate in one of the other meetings. He’s been collecting what he can from other educators on social media. That’s how Lane realized how much the state was paying ClassWallet to administer the EEF program.

“That really grates on my last nerves,” he said. “That’s money that could be spent on these kids’ classrooms.”

She doubts she will get what she needs for her class — like coloring cups to make learning more accessible for her students, a walkie-talkie to communicate with her teaching assistant, dim lamps for her students with sensory needs — before the first day of school on Aug. 3.

“There is no way right now that I can send out a list and receive it when the students return,” he said. “A lot of times when you’re teaching and someone doesn’t understand what we’re doing, you think, ‘If I could just quickly go to Walmart and buy some playdough or beads, I could help them.’ But now, if we don’t want to spend our own money, we’re going to have to place an order, wait for it to be accepted and delivered.”

Lane plans to use the money she made from a recent garage sale and selling items on Facebook to purchase the supplies she needs.

“We, as teachers, have enough to deal with,” he said. “For special education teachers like me, our students are still required to meet certain standards. Meeting those who don’t have the supplies we need is going to be really difficult.”

Riley said educators across the state are expressing frustration. They are also concerned about the platform’s list of providers, he said, which includes about 50 providers focused on homeschooling.

ClassWallet’s website promotes the new federal tax scholarship program and includes testimonials from homeschoolers and education savings account recipients across the country.

Jean Cook, a spokesperson for the state education agency, said home-schooling providers are included on ClassWallet’s list because the platform operates nationwide. The list of Mississippi-specific providers will be updated weekly, according to the agency’s website.

A statement released by the education agency on Monday notes: “Many other states do not have programs like Mississippi’s that give teachers money to purchase supplemental educational materials for their individual classrooms.”

David Bates, a former teacher, owns one of Mississippi’s approved providers: Old School Learning Depot in Pascagoula. Her company offers after-school tutoring services for students and sells school supplies for teachers. In previous years, Bates would drive a bus full of school supplies to local schools, allowing teachers to shop in person with their EEF cards without leaving school.

But he now estimates the new process will result in a loss of $60,000 in revenue for his business because teachers will want to avoid spending their own money.

“For a mom-and-pop store, that’s a pretty big amount of money,” he said.

“I’m not fighting change,” Bates said. “I just want the opportunity to be part of the change. I’m frustrated by the last-minute implementation and last-minute communication about how to make this work for everyone.”

Keyana Hawthorne, an English teacher at Murrah High School in Jackson, was initially skeptical about the agency switching to ClassWallet. Now, he said he hates being right.

Hawthorne plans to attend training on July 28, which she says conflicts with the professional development she receives in the days before school. His students return on July 29.

As a result, all school supplies will come out of pocket this year, Hawthorne said. She plans to buy them in increments because she can’t afford to buy everything at once. With two children of her own to buy school supplies for, Hawthorne said she is overwhelmed, frustrated and disappointed.

“This is out of my small budget and makes me wonder: How are we supposed to survive here?” she said. “I’m very frustrated right now. This is what happens when teachers aren’t asked to sit at the tables where crucial decisions are made.”

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This story was originally published by Mississippi Today and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.