Meet the 2026 Community Catalyst Grantees
From One-Room Schoolhouses to South Texas: Announcing the 2026 Catalyst Cohort
Last year, we made a bet: that AI Readiness wouldn't be built nationally before it's built locally; and that the people best positioned to build it were the teachers, educators, and community leaders already doing the work.
That bet was the Community Catalyst Program. Last year, we watched a preschool teacher and a school librarian in rural Kentucky design a reading program together through KEDC's Think AI cohort. We saw Capital Region ESD 113 in Olympia, Washington plan an AI Learning Circle for 20 educators. We watched two Native-led organizations, the Ulu Lāhui Foundation in Hawaiʻi and the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe in Washington, meet at one of our convenings and build a collaboration around language preservation that we never could have designed ourselves.
Today, we're thrilled to announce the next chapter: the seven organizations joining the 2026 Community Catalyst Program.
Who's in the 2026 cohort
This year's cohort spans six states and is projected to reach more than 1,100 educators and 30,000 students — from one-room schoolhouses in Montana to a 10-campus network in South Texas.
Capital Region ESD 113 (Washington) is back for a second round, our first returning grantee. After their Round 1 AI Learning Circle drew triple the expected applications, they're going deeper: a yearlong AI-integrated classroom project in partnership with Wa He Lut Indian School and Yelm School District.
Education Service Unit 6 (Nebraska) is launching the TLC AI Readiness Accelerator, bringing administrators and teachers to the table together so classroom integration and district systems actually connect.
Harmony Public Schools (Texas) is building the South Texas AI Ambassadors Program, developing teacher leaders across 10 campuses.
Learning Technology Center (Illinois) will guide 8–10 rural districts through its Rural AI Leadership Cohort — a strategic planning process that ends with formally adopted local AI guidance and a concrete PD rollout plan.
Montana Digital Academy's Frontier Learning Lab is training 23 teacher leaders at one-room schoolhouses and very small schools — educators who are often their school's entire instructional staff — to lead AI Readiness work for their systems.
National Center for Learning Disabilities (Wyoming) is tackling a question few others are: how should educators evaluate AI-generated IEP content? Their yearlong project will build AI literacy resources centered on supporting students with disabilities.
Sultan School District (Washington) is going districtwide, developing shared AI guidelines and training teachers across every school.
What's different this round
This round of Catalyst support is focused entirely on where impact goes furthest: professional learning and educator capacity building. Every 2026 project centers on the people who shape classrooms — teachers, instructional coaches, administrators, and district teams.
Beyond funding, every grantee will also receive wraparound support from aiEDU — including train-the-trainer programming, strategic advising, and coaching — and will convene as a cohort throughout the grant year for peer connection and collaboration.
What comes next
The work is already underway. Over the coming year, we'll be sharing stories from the cohort, including the projects, the educators leading them, and what they're learning.
To our seven new (and returning!) grantees: welcome. We can't wait to see what you build.
