This article examines the role of social protection in supporting education in conflict-affected contexts. In recent years, social protection has gained popularity as a mechanism to reduce poverty and vulnerability, in part by enabling households to better access and use basic services as a result of increased household income. In conflict-affected countries the costs of accessing services are significant and the direct and indirect costs of sending children to school can be the most substantial factor contributing to children's exclusion from education. While social protection has the potential to play an important role in supporting greater access to education through a variety of instruments, they have not been widely implemented and education remains a secondary objective in the majority of social protection programming. A number of institutional and implementation challenges must be overcome if social protection is to be effective in conflict-affected contexts.