SAN ANTONIO — From decorations on the walls to rewards in a classroom treasure box, many of the supplies students see every day are purchased by their teachers.

For Jessica Rodriguez, those purchases are part of creating a classroom where her students want to learn.

“We do it because we love our job,” Rodriguez said.

Teachers like Rodriguez and Araceli Montalvo have acquired decor and supplies over the years as they’ve taught at Roosevelt Dual Language Academy in Edgewood ISD. They say the district doesn’t require teachers to spend their own money for these things, but it’s a way to help students feel comfortable.

“We want our environments to be cozy, very inviting,” said Montalvo.

But newer teachers often have to front a lot of the cost for things like rugs, curtains, stuffed animals, and other optional classroom additions.

A new survey from the Texas State Teachers Association found that its teacher-members reported spending an average of $841 per year on school supplies for which they were not reimbursed. The online survey of 512 TSTA members was conducted in spring 2026 by faculty at Sam Houston State University and included teachers from urban, suburban and rural districts.

At the same time, Texas still has a nearly two-decade-old law on the books designed specifically to help reimburse teachers for some of those expenses.

The problem: the program isn’t being implemented.

A reimbursement program frozen in time

The Classroom Supply Reimbursement Program was created by the Texas Legislature in 2003. State law directs the education commissioner to establish a program providing money to school districts to reimburse classroom teachers who spend their own money on supplies. Districts receiving state money were required to match it with local funds.

The program was supposed to be implemented no later than the 2005-06 school year, but the law included an important condition: it could operate only if lawmakers specifically appropriated money for it or the education commissioner identified other eligible funding.

Under the accompanying Texas Education Agency rule, an individual teacher or campus library media specialist could receive no more than $200 a year through the state grant program.

That rule included an expiration date of Sept. 1, 2007.

Nearly 20 years later, however, both the underlying statute and the expired rule remain in Texas’ education laws and regulations.

Agency calls the rule obsolete

The unusual situation surfaced during a 2026 regulatory review of TEA rules.

In a draft report produced as part of the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office review, TEA classified the Teacher Supply Reimbursement Grant Program as an “obsolete” rule and said the program is no longer being implemented.

“Rule expired in 2007. This statute is still on the books,” the review says, recommending legislative action that would allow the statute — and eventually the rule — to be repealed.

The regulatory review process allows TEA and the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office to identify rules that could be amended or eliminated and determine whether changes can be made through agency rulemaking or require action from the Legislature.

Teachers continue paying out of pocket

For Texas State Teachers Association President Linda Estrada, the fact that teachers continue spending hundreds of dollars of their own money is part of a broader school-funding problem.

“It shouldn’t be common; it’s unacceptable, and our educators should not be having to subsidize what the state is lacking to do,” Estrada said.

Estrada said the union would support bringing some form of reimbursement back, but she’s also calling for more funding for public schools.

“We would love to see that come back, and so that our educators could get reimbursed,” she said.

Montalvo agreed that even partial reimbursement could help teachers who routinely reach into their own pockets.

“Anything can definitely help us with that reimbursement for what we spend,” she said.

Beyond the average $841 in unreimbursed school supplies, TSTA’s 2026 survey found 33% of respondents worked an additional job during the school year to meet their families’ needs.