Minecraft Education Edition can be a great educational resource, but access at home may be difficult.
Minecraft Education Edition is not free – verified schools can purchase student logins for $5 per student per year. Families can purchase it for $12 annually, assuming you have a Microsoft 365 account. source
There are a few ways that families can get Minecraft Education Edition login information. This is different than other Minecraft versions. You can see the difference here.
Minecraft Education Edition Account for Students in Public Schools
Access to Minecraft Education Edition will be the easiest for public school students.
Public schools can apply for a special Microsoft 365 account. To do this, they must contact Microsoft directly for a quote and have their credentials and website checked for validity.
Many public schools have already done this and have an account already as Education Edition grows in popularity for its educational benefits.
If a public school has access, they will likely have given students access to it already, but the first step is to contact the school to see if they have Minecraft Education Edition.
If they do not have access to it, you should ask if they have Microsoft 365 account for the school. If they have this, the cost is only $5 per year to the school.
The school may or may not be interested in providing access if they do not already have it. This will be up to the individual school.
Public schools can’t charge for access to a learning resource.
Minecraft Education Edition Account for Homeschoolers
Minecraft Education Edition used to only be available with a school login. However, it has been recently opened up to homeschool families. I wrote an article with a walk-through with screenshots of getting set up for homeschool families.
However, there is another potential way to access it. This will depend on how your state operates with homeschoolers and public schools. Some states cut off all school funding when a family removes a child to homeschool them and the obligations to those students.
States that maintain some funding in schools (and the obligations that go with it) for homeschool students may provide an email login for the student if their school has access to Minecraft Education Edition as described above for public schools.
Minecraft Education Edition Account for Online Students
Some states offer public online schools for students, known as charter schools. They are public schools receiving public funding and can get access to Minecraft Education Edition as described above.
Charter schools may provide the login for all students, or if they provide a yearly stipend for parents to spend on educational materials, they may ask you to pay $5 per year out of that stipend for the account.
If the online charter school doesn’t have access to Minecraft Education Edition, they can get access by following the steps described above for public schools.
Public schools can’t charge for access to a learning resource.
Minecraft Education Edition Account for Private School Students
Anyone with a Microsoft Teams account or Microsoft 365 account can access Minecraft Education Edition (sometimes, there is even the option to get it free for a year when they purchase either Teams or 365).
Minecraft offers special nonprofit pricing for access to Teams if the school is a nonprofit. Here is a link to see the prices. There are some options to get access for free up to a certain amount of users!
If the school is a for-profit school, they can still get access to Teams or 365 and, therefore, access to Minecraft Education Edition accounts for their students. They need to go through the normal process of applying for a Teams account for their business.
Depending on how your state works with homeschoolers, if the private school doesn’t have access, you may be able to get an account through the school as described above for homeschoolers.
Minecraft Education Resources
I have no association with Minecraft, Mojang, or Microsoft. I am sharing my experiences with this game only.
Below is a list of pages on this website that you may want to review for more information about using Minecraft to teach, whether it is homeschooled, charter school, public school, tutoring, or other programs.
- How to use Minecraft for Education
- Which version of Minecraft should you use?
- How to get Minecraft Education Edition if you are a homeschooler
- Minecraft writing prompts
- Free Minecraft Education account
You may want these resources for teaching Minecraft as well: