[10][11] According to ClassDojo, its app is used by teachers, children and families in 95% of pre-kindergarten through eighth grade schools in the United States, as well in a further 180 countries.

[1][12][2] ClassDojo is an alum of Y Combinator's Ed-tech division, and was launched in August 2011 by Sam Chaudhary and Liam Don from the ImagineK12 education seed accelerator.

[15] The pair released the first version of ClassDojo in July 2011 to help teachers to build a positive classroom culture through a feedback app.

[28] In October 2016, ClassDojo produced a second video series on empathy, in partnership with the Making Caring Common Project at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

[30] In May 2019, in partnership with Yale, ClassDojo held "the first-ever global mindfulness lesson" of exercises and breathing activities in 180 countries.

[31] In August 2012, ClassDojo announced it had raised $1.6 million of main seed capital from Paul Graham, SV Angel, SoftTech VC, Mitch Kapor, Lerer Ventures, and General Catalyst Partners.

[33] In late 2015, ClassDojo raised $21 million in a series B round of funding led by General Catalyst Partners.

If they choose to, they get an access code from the teacher;[40] after creating an account, the students can customize their avatar, add photos and videos to their portfolio, and view the 'Story' for each of their classes.

[49] In 2017, the London School of Economics released a blog post about student data protection and mental health in regard to using classroom apps such as ClassDojo.

[50] ClassDojo has also been criticized for teaching "students to understand life as being inseparable from digital technology, and...normalizes both surveillance and the kind of isolating individualism that can cause mental illness.

[41] The features within the app have been compared to a private, ad-free version of Snapchat and Instagram stories, as well as being called the "Netflix for education".