Are Box Tops still a thing?

Box Tops for Education is still running, and the cardboard clip is over. If your school asked you to mention it, one reminder is the job, and nobody has to buy a thing.

General Mills ended the traditional clip program on March 2, 2023. The official rules, effective July 1, 2025, say families earn for an enrolled school by scanning a receipt in the Box Tops app within 14 days, by sending a digital receipt, or by connecting a participating store account. A July 2026 article in Raising Arizona Kids answered the question parents still type: yes, it is still a thing, and it is mostly on a phone now. That piece noted more than 350 participating products, and that most qualifying items earn about ten cents.

What you do not collect

This is not a fundraiser you run with scissors. Schools that are enrolled and active get checks twice a year, by the end of December and the end of April. Preschool-only programs are not eligible. Many schools from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade can be, if General Mills has them as enrolled. If you are not sure yours is in, ask the office or the parent organization before you send a note. A receipt scanned for a school that is not enrolled does not help anyone.

This is often a parent-organization job, not a room-parent job. Same clipboard, different meeting. Ask who already sends the reminder. If they do, you do not send a second one. If they ask your class to pass it on, pass it on once. You do not become the coordinator because you mentioned it.

The note

Say what is true. Clips from boxes do not count anymore, so do not set out a bin for cardboard squares and do not ask children to bring them in. Do not run a contest that ranks which family scanned the most. Do not tell anyone which brands to buy. The app sometimes shows bonus offers. You do not have to explain those. A family who wants them can read them in the app.

A family who already buys a participating item can scan the receipt if they want. A family who does not is finished. About ten cents is not a reason to change a grocery list, and you should not talk as if it is. Do not collect other people's receipts. That is their account, not a class pile.

You do not need their earnings, their logins, or a list of who participated. If someone asks how much the school has earned, point them to the office or the coordinator. Do not guess a total.

You can paste this after the person who runs the program checks it. "Box Tops is digital now. If our school is enrolled and you already buy a participating product, you can scan the receipt in the Box Tops app within 14 days. Clipped box tops are no longer accepted. This is optional. Please do not buy anything extra for it."

Then leave it. The next reminder, if there is one, belongs to the person who owns the program, not to a monthly nudge from you.