Pencils, calculators, notebooks, lunch boxes, name brand pens — and the bag to carry it all. The list of back-to-school materials for kids is long and expensive.
Keydi Bermudes, a mother of three children in Chelsea, estimates that the cost of supplies was over $200 total this year. She supplemented supplies she bought herself by going to giveaway events at schools, which she estimated saved her at least $80. Bermudes said the events had fewer materials this year because so many people were going to them.
“Buying pens, notebooks, everything is more expensive,” she said in Spanish.
Across the board, families feel the strain. Nearly a third (31%) of U.S. adults doing school shopping will go into debt to pay for it, or already have according to Bankrate’s Back to School survey. Schools also have less money to spend on students this year. Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, said many districts have exhausted their pandemic stimulus money.
Koocher said providing tablets or laptops comes at a significant cost to schools, but even materials that involve paper are more expensive this year.
“I can say that if you’re looking for the kinds of things that you go to a stationery store for, or a paper supply store for, or even textbooks — they have been high,” Koocher said.
In Massachusetts, nonprofits have long stepped in to help cash-strapped parents, but this year is even more intense than others.
Alex Train is chief operating officer for social services organization La Colaborativa. He estimates some parents spend between $250 to $300 per student for supplies, depending on the school and grade level.
“There’s mounting pressure on families right now, to meet their children’s basic needs, whether that’s buying backpacks and notebooks, or providing extracurricular programing for the students,” he said. The organization has provided backpacks and supplies to over 12,000 children for the upcoming school year, using its own funds, donations and corporate sponsorships.
In Lynn, the Lynn Family Resource Center and other groups held an event last Saturday for parents. Just that one day, the groups handed out 420 backpacks with supplies, followed by almost a hundred more from parents calling in the days since.
“We have definitely seen an increase in that need over the past couple of years,” said Olivia Grinstead, program director at the Lynn Family Resource Center.
In addition to local residents, Grinstead said new arrivals have reached out for help, often staying in emergency assistance shelters while their children are enrolled into local school districts.
Grinstead encourages parents in need to reach out to their schools as well, because sometimes back-to-school events aren’t well publicized.
Teachers are seeing the strain as well. Christine Mulroney, a 28-year educator and the president of Framingham Teachers Association, said teachers get funding for programs and classrooms — about $200-$250, in Mulroney’s case. But she said districts need to increase that.
“The money that we’re being given by the district is in no way filling that gap of them buying the materials that the students will need to be successful,” she said.
When teachers step in to help students in financial crisis, the Framingham Teachers Association also works with MTA’s nonprofit, The Massachusetts Child, to reimburse expenses.
“We work with, with the guidance and the social workers in the building to identify students who would be in financial crisis and would potentially have that need [for school supplies],” Mulroney said. That can range from shoes, backpacks, basic supplies, and additional grant money for extracurriculars.
