Strategy and Operations Lead

ClassDojo, the platform used in 95% of US schools, has launched ClassDojo Payments, an embedded payment solution enabling schools to collect fees, manage fundraisers and process payments. The system, powered by Pay Theory, will launch in late 2026. The platform addresses financial inclusion by allowing unbanked families to pay via cash at over 60,000 retail locations, including CVS, Walgreens and 7-Eleven. Parents generate a barcode in the app and pay in cash, with funds credited directly to school accounts. ClassDojo Payments consolidates classroom communication, family engagement and financial operations into a single platform, eliminating the need for multiple vendors. The system maintains PCI-DSS Level 1 security standards and complies with FERPA and COPPA requirements. ClassDojo connects over 50 million families globally.

Unifying the District experience. ClassDojo partners with Pay Theory to power the future of school operations. K12 education has struggled to keep up with the modernization of digital financial services. Most schools today still rely on outdated tools like paper forms and a myriad of disconnected third-party providers, creating unnecessary barriers and additional work for administrators, teachers, and families. However, communications between teachers, administrators, and families have come a long way, with tools like ClassDojo tearing down old barriers. Now messages flow seamlessly between these players for the benefit of all. In fact, 89% of teachers say that ClassDojo improves relationships with families. Families are better able to participate in students' education, leading to better outcomes. For ClassDojo, it was time to bring those two realities together in ClassDojo Payments. They needed a payments partner to help them realize that dream. The power of a unified system. ClassDojo connects with families in 95% of U.S. schools. By integrating Pay Theory, it builds on its outstanding communication experiences to tear down barriers between teacher and administrator requests and parents' payments, making transactions as seamless as asking about homework within the platform. "Schools need payments that work for every family," said Brad Hoeweler, CEO of Pay Theory. "That is why we're so proud to partner with ClassDojo. Together, we're bringing inclusive payments infrastructure to K-12 communities so districts spend less time on transactions and more time ensuring students have access to the experiences that help them excel." What changes operationally: * Operational Unity: District leaders no longer have to manage separate vendors for messaging and payments. This reduces administrative silos and provides real-time visibility into payment status across every school. * Real-Time Roster Updates: When a parent pays for a field trip or tech fee, the status updates on the teacher's roster in real time. No more manual reconciliation or lost forms. * Trusted Compliance: Secure money movement is backed by SOC 2 Type II and PCI Level 1 compliance, ensuring student and family data is protected within the existing school ecosystem. Integrating payments into the channels where teachers and parents already connect simplifies school operations, reducing friction and allowing schools to focus on student experiences. K12 schools have unique payment needs. Payments embedded in SaaS solutions like ClassDojo must meet the unique needs of the vertical in which the SaaS platform operates. It's that simple. SaaS platforms have to build on the RIGHT embedded payment and money movement infrastructure so that they can create value-added experiences for their customers (schools = merchants) and their payors (families, teachers, etc.). Payments in EdTech have three fundamentally unique needs: * Accepting EVERYTHING so you can accept EVERYONE. K12 school ecosystems cannot turn people away. So, they need to meet people where they are - whether they have a bank account or a payment card or they don't, and they want to use cash. Nearly 30% of families in K12 U.S. public schools are either un or underbanked. School Districts are moving to cashless campuses, but if they don't have a path to serve un and underbanked families, they risk leaving people behind. * School Onboarding to Payments HAS to be EASY. K12 school administrators are not payment experts day in and day out, and at the same time, setting up payments needs to be easy to participate in! Pay Theory, Inc. want them all using the platform as much as possible. It cannot be both difficult to use and effective. The difficulty will always outweigh the effectiveness. * K12 schools are ECOSYSTEMS. They have a lot of moving parts - multiple buildings and accounts, multiple payment creators, different kinds of payments from field trips to activity and club fees, to tech fees, to donations. Simple payments platforms cannot manage these ecosystem needs. If an athletic director wants to quickly set up a t-sale for a weekend event, that should NOT require them to use their personal Venmo to do it! Designing embedded payments for these vertical-specific needs was the driver behind ClassDojo's partnership with Pay Theory, Inc.. Pay Theory, Inc. had the same desire to build breakthrough K12 ecosystem financial experiences. Payments built for EdTech (...must pays). Pay Theory's platform was built to fulfill these operational needs so that more payments move onto the ClassDojo platform. The ClassDojo reach is unparalleled. Pay Theory, Inc. KNOW families will see the ClassDojo Payments product offering. Now Pay Theory, Inc. need to make it awesome. Here are just a few ways Pay Theory, Inc. is going to do this together! * Accept CASH DIGITALLY, while providing all the other payment acceptance methods people are used to, from all types of cards, to ACH (bank payments), payment wallets like ApplePay(TM), GooglePay(TM), and PAZE(TM). Pay Theory, Inc. want to make it so anyone can pay through ClassDojo, no matter their banking or card status. * Customize School's digital merchant applications for easy completion. Pay Theory's school-focused onboarding process eliminates all the inapplicable and confusing elements of a standard transaction processing merchant account application. This makes applications a snap, especially when working with the outstanding support team at ClassDojo. * Make managing payments easy for Districts - Pay Theory's own merchant interfaces and GraphQL based API infrastructure make it easy to deliver beautiful, informative reporting that visualizes the key elements of payments for teachers, administrators, and families alike. Districts can see single buildings or roll up to a full District view! These might seem like little things. But, as anyone who's worked in K-12 school districts will tell you, the devil is in the details when it comes to change management. These little things add up to workflow simplification and higher adoption rates. All that means more payments flowing to the ClassDojo platform and more teachers, students, administrators, and families engaged in the payments experience. For Districts, that means more payments get seen, and more payments get made! Pay Theory, Inc. is so proud to partner with ClassDojo in building out breakthrough financial experiences for K-12 School Districts. Welcome to Pay Theory. This is going to be awesome! Inclusive Payments for A Diverse World Product.

Integration makes Canva content shareable on ClassDojo. Key takeaways. * Canva now integrates with ClassDojo: The partnership allows educators and district leaders to create content in Canva and publish it directly to ClassDojo classroom or school Stories. * Streamlined workflow and authentication: Users can authenticate Canva within ClassDojo, access existing design libraries, and share content without managing multiple tools. * Free access for all users: The Canva integration is available at no cost to all ClassDojo users. ClassDojo has partnered with Canva Education to integrate the visual communication platform into its communication and engagement solution. The pairing enables district communications leaders, principals, and teachers to create content in Canva and share it via ClassDojo without managing multiple tools or workflows, the companies explained in a news announcement. Users can authenticate Canva within ClassDojo, access their existing design library, and publish Canva content directly to classroom or school Stories in just a few clicks, facilitating more visual storytelling and engaging school communications, the announcement said. "Canva Education and ClassDojo share a belief that communication should be simple, joyful, and inclusive. This partnership brings together two tools educators already love and unlocks a new way for schools and districts to share their story - beautifully and at scale," said Andy Shaw, North America K-12 school engagement lead at Canva Education, in a statement. "By combining Canva's design capabilities with ClassDojo's trusted school-home engagement platform, the integration helps schools move beyond text-heavy messages and static PDFs/attachments to create dynamic stories that better reflect daily learning and school culture." "District communications teams need to move fast and deliver clear, engaging messages to families across every school," commented Dr. Chad A. Steven, head of Growth and Partnerships at ClassDojo. "By embedding Canva into ClassDojo, districts gain powerful visual storytelling tools in the platform they already trust, without adding complexity for teachers or administrators." "Our teachers use Canva Education, and our families rely on ClassDojo - so bringing the two together makes it easier to share school updates in ways families truly engage with," said Emily Reynolds, chief information technology officer at Pittsylvania County Schools. "This integration helps educators communicate faster and more consistently, while allowing our district to tell our story through clear, inclusive visuals that reflect daily learning across our schools." The Canva integration is available to all ClassDojo users at no cost. For more information, visit the ClassDojo site. Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected]. Featured. * New Education Security Toolkit Provides AI-Aware Cybersecurity Guidance Microsoft has launched a new toolkit for educators and IT teams designed to provide practical cybersecurity guidance tailored to the education sector. * Microsoft Offers AI Community for Educators with 'Elevate' Program Microsoft has introduced Elevate for Educators, a new program designed to "provide educators and school leaders with access to a global community, professional development, and resources to confidently integrate AI into teaching and learning." * Microsoft Copilot Intros Voice Commands, Teams Collaboration, Local Data Processing Microsoft has added new features within its Microsoft 365 Copilot offering, aimed at making further foothold in the enterprise, including voice-based interaction, group collaboration tools, and an expansion of in-country data processing. * Edthena Launches AI-Powered Classroom Observation Tool Professional learning platform Edthena has introduced Observation Copilot, an AI tool for principals designed to streamline the process of writing up framework-aligned teacher feedback from classroom observation notes.