Pets in the Classroom is an educational grants program supporting responsible pet care for school classrooms. Sponsored by the Pet Care Trust, the goal of the program is to establish healthy child-pet relationships at an early age by supporting responsible pet care in Pre-Kindergarten-9th Grade classrooms across the U.S. and Canada in both public and private schools.  High School grades 10-12, Homeschools, Home Daycare Centers and Home-based preschools do not qualify at this time.

Many school teachers have very limited resources for the support of classroom animals. The Pet Care Trust sponsors this program to help teachers purchase or maintain pets in the classroom through direct, no-hassle grants. The program leaves it up to the teacher to select the pet that is most appropriate for her/his classroom. There have been a wide variety of funding requests, from snakes and lizards to guinea pigs and rabbits, proving that many different species provide interesting classroom companions.

These grants are intended to support pets or aquariums in the classroom for the purposes of teaching children to bond with and care for their pets responsibly. The welfare of the small animals involved is of paramount importance. These grants must not be used for the purposes of research or experiments of any kind.

Only small animals that reside in the classroom are eligible for this program. Dogs, cats and other larger house pets do not qualify. Science projects such as caterpillars/butterflies, worms/composting and chicken egg hatching projects are not considered pets in the classroom and do not qualify for this program. No animals classified as livestock will qualify.