The Foundation funds programs for all 27 schools in the Issaquah School District, enriching the lives of nearly 19,000 students.

These programs include academic support and funding for fine arts classes and robotics clubs, to basics like food and backpacks. Our programs help students in building academic foundations, exploring limitless opportunities, and launching successfully into the future.

The Issaquah Schools Foundation’s earliest efforts were in providing grants for teachers. The Foundation believes that innovation is essential and provides funds to explore and implement new ideas in the classroom. Foundation grants transform these ideas into programs and solutions that can ultimately be implemented across the district, multiplying the benefits to students for years to come.

There is great history in programs the Foundation has been able to seed and cultivate into long standing opportunities for students.

The VOICE Mentor program was started by the Foundation in 2004 with 12 mentors serving 15 students. It is now a district program with hundreds of students supported by mentors every week.
TEALS (Technology Education and Literacy in Schools) was an idea for computer science professionals to teach CS at the high school level. It was brought to the Issaquah Schools Foundation which funded a pilot of the program at Issaquah High in 2009. The program caught on and grew tremendously! TEALS is now run by Microsoft Philanthropies serving 17,000 students at over 500 high schools.

Information about individual programs funded by the Foundation is provided below.