Priscilla Chan’s fund has provided $330,000 to support Kauaʻi’s schools as the new academic year gets underway, with all 23 public and charter schools receiving a share of the funding. The latest funding continues the Chan Zuckerberg Kauaʻi Community Fund’s support for the island, established in 2019. Separately, Chan and Mark Zuckerberg have also backed a free back-to-school event that distributed more than 3,000 supply-filled backpacks to local students.
As reported by Hawaii News Now, the support also extends to Kumu’s Cupboard, a Līhuʻe nonprofit that provides free classroom supplies to teachers. The unrestricted grants give school leaders flexibility to direct the money towards their most pressing needs.
The latest grants cover Kauaʻi’s full public and charter school network, including 16 public schools and seven public charter schools. The new distribution comes at the beginning of the 2026-27 school year, when schools, families and educators are again dealing with the costs associated with returning to class.
Needs can differ from one school to another, and flexible funding allows those decisions to be made locally rather than according to a single island-wide spending plan. Kauaʻi Complex Area Superintendent Leila Maeda-Kobayashi said, “Unrestricted or flexible grants empower our school leaders to direct resources exactly where they are needed most. Hawaiʻi Community Foundation Program Director Marissa Sandblom said, “By addressing resource disparities and financial pressures facing students, families, and educators, we can help remove barriers and cultivate the necessary conditions for meaningful engagement in learning. ”
Rather than being tied to a particular classroom project or a narrowly defined expense, the funding is unrestricted. That gives individual school leaders room to decide how the money should be used. Including the organisation in the grant distribution broadens the reach of the funding beyond school campuses. It also means teachers can access supplies through a community organisation rather than relying solely on resources allocated to their schools.