Nearly 500 special education teachers and kindergarten teachers in Jerusalem have received an iPad as part of the Athena Fund‘s iPad for Every Special Education Teacher program. In addition to the iPad, the teachers will receive 120 hours of professional training. They join special education teachers who received iPads last year, bringing the total number of Jerusalem’s special education teachers and kindergarten teachers who received iPads to about 1,000.

Through this Athena Fund program, about 10,000 special education teachers in Israel will receive iPads, along with special software and applications for students with special needs and disabilities. Since the program’s launch in November 2015, 5,746 special education and kindergarten teachers across Israel have already received iPads. The program is being implemented in cooperation with Israel’s Ministry of Education’s Department of Special Education.

The program is designed to empower special education teachers in Israel and enable them to communicate better with their students.

The iPad for Every Special Education Teacher program, launched in 2015, is one of Athena Fund’s programs, including Laptop for Every Teacher (launched in 2007), Laptop for Every Kindergarten Teacher (launched 2012), Tablet for Every Science Teacher (launched 2014) and Laptop for Every English Teacher (launched 2018). To date, the fund has distributed laptops, tablets and iPads (according to the fund’s various programs) to more than 20,000 teachers and kindergarten teachers in 1,602 schools and kindergartens in 136 local authorities, along with professional training courses.

The distribution of iPads to special education and kindergarten teachers in Jerusalem was made possible thanks to contributions from the Athena Fund and its partners: the Israel Teachers Union’s Professional Advancement Fund, Bank Massad, Israel’s Ministry of Education, the Ted Arison Family Foundation, the Sylvan Adams Family Foundation, the United Israel Appeal of Canada and the Jerusalem Municipality.