Initiative will help enable educators and agencies better serve early child care and pre-school populations nationwide

ClassWallet, the leading purchasing and reimbursement platform for public funds, has formed an early care and education (ECE) “Center of Excellence” focused on helping child care professionals, providers, ECE programs and government agencies create the most effective and efficient government-funded programs.

The ClassWallet Early Care and Education Center of Excellence will expand upon the efforts of a program the company helped develop in partnership with the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL), which provides equal access to quality education for all children in their early development years leveraging a range of state, federal and private grants.

In 2023, DECAL awarded a contract to ClassWallet to track, report and facilitate the distribution of over $140 million in grant programs funded by the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF). Since the award, ClassWallet has completed more than 119,000 transactions impacting thousands of children and ECE providers across the state.

“ClassWallet’s automated payments platform has assisted us in distributing funds across the state of Georgia to provide greater access to resources for child care programs and teachers,” said Rian Ringsrud, deputy commissioner for finance and administration, DECAL. “These resources are being used to improve classroom quality and maintain healthy and safe environments, while simultaneously, the platform enables fiscal accountability and transparency.”

“We established the ClassWallet Early Care and Education Center of Excellence to pave the way for qualified families, early child care providers and educators to benefit from public funding and quickly receive the financial support they need,” said Jamie Rosenberg, CEO, ClassWallet. “The new center of excellence will help us broaden our scope as an organization and use our digital wallet technology to better serve ECE programs, providers, families, and, most importantly, our nation’s children well before they enter kindergarten.”

According to research, children in ECE programs are more likely to graduate from high school1 and have more developed social and emotional skills. They also are more likely to go to college and earn higher wages as adults.2

For more than a decade, ClassWallet’s purchasing and reimbursement platform with its integrated digital wallet has provided a nimble way for public funds to be distributed to schools, educators and families, while at the same time, providing state and local government agency program administrators with sophisticated tools to track spending compliance in a much more efficient and impactful manner.

The ClassWallet Early Care and Education Center of Excellence will be led by Michael López, Ph.D., Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives in Early Child Care. Dr. López is a nationally recognized early childhood expert and a passionate advocate for low-income, culturally, and linguistically diverse populations. He has over 30 years of experience in applied policy-relevant research in the area of ECE and equity at the national, state, and local levels. For information, contact Dr. López at mlopez@classwallet.com, or visit https://classwallet.com/early-care-education/.

About ClassWallet

ClassWallet is the leading purchasing and reimbursement platform for public funds. A pioneer in financial and government technology, ClassWallet’s digital wallet technology is used by state and local agencies across 34 states to ensure public funds reach the right people for the right purpose. Since 2014, the ClassWallet platform has been used to securely and efficiently deliver more than $3.5 billion in public funds while maintaining customer loyalty and satisfaction which exceeds some of the world’s largest brands. Headquartered in Hollywood, Florida, ClassWallet ranks as the 61st fastest growing software company on the prestigious Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies and the 21st fastest growing financial technology company on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 in 2023. In January 2024, ClassWallet was recognized by J.D. Power for Providing “An Outstanding Customer Service Experience” for Phone Support.

1 https://highscope.org/perry-preschool-project/ 2 https://www.startearly.org/why-early-childhood/

Media contact: Mike Atkinson, Sage Communications (For ClassWallet) ClassWallet@aboutsage.com