Educational Discounts for Homeschooling Families

Did you know that homeschooling parents are entitled to receive discounts offered to public school teachers or private tutors!

To get these discount, you will need some physical proof you are a teacher before going to a business and asking for an educator discount. You don’t have to pay for and educator ID because if you have a computer and printer, you can create your own with a free download from My Teaching Library!

What Types of Businesses May Offer Teacher Discounts…

Homeschoolers have asked and received discounts at all sorts of places of business:

Arts & Crafts
Bookstores
Catalog Suppliers of all sorts of things
Computer Stores (computer hardware and software for teacher & students)
Craft Supply Stores
Furniture Stores (student desks & chairs)
General Merchandise
Hardware Stores (For all those bookshelves and projects)
Museums
Music Stores
Office Supply
Science Stores
Sporting goods

If you do not already know that an educator discount is offered, who do you ask? When you go to a place of business, ask for the general manager or for the sales person in charge of corporate accounts at larger businesses. Ask that person if they give an “educators’ discount” BEFORE you tell them you are a homeschooler. A “yes” answer will give them less room to wiggle out once you do tell them you homeschool. If they say “yes,” tell them you are a homeschool educator (No need to go into great detail.) and you’d like to apply to get an educators’ discount.

What You Will Need

You will definitely need an educator ID card that proves you are a teacher. You can create one easily on your computer with My Teaching Library’s FREE Homeschool ID resource!

Download your template and open it with a pdf program. Then, click on each section to type in your information. Next, click on the image section and upload your photo.
To print a normal size (credit card size) ID card, make sure your printer is set to print the template as is. This means you do not want to click on any scaling options such as “fit to printer margins”, “custom scale” or “reduce or enlarge” settings. If you print, as is, your ID will print at the size of a credit card.
Once you print out your ID, cut it out and laminate it. You do not have to have a lamination machine as you can purchase laminating – self-adhesive or self- sealing sheets or pockets at most any office supply store or even Walmart!

Sometimes, some businesses may also want you to have a statement on letterhead from your school saying you are authorized by that school to make purchases. If this is the case, simply create a letterhead on your own computer, state that you, as the educator, are authorized by that school (your homeschool – create your own homeschool ‘name’) to make purchases and have it signed by the ‘principal’ (your spouse or close family member)!

Most businesses will only require an educator ID, but just know that you ‘may’ have a business that wants a letter of authorization as well so you may want to have one handy.