Parents of school-age children: Do your children's schools want you to send a lot of stuff for the beginning of the school year (see my list)?

That list seems to have a lot of art supplies.

Yes, my daughter’s school asks for similar items – every year.——She’s going into fourth grade now.—

And they’re are mandetory fundraisers, and donations of time and/or money…oh, and I pay tuition.

I think that the excess has to do with giving some of the supplies to those who didn’t bring enough. I think it’s a “share” deal. The class can end up with sixty boxes of Kleenex. lol

In my last school district my children were asked to bring at least that much stuff. It varied by grade and the list was always long. We changed districts last year and in our new district we do not have to provide so much as a paper or pencil for elementary students. The school provides every single thing the student will require. I do have to buy notebooks, folders, and writing instruments for my seventh grader but my 8th grader gets a school issued laptop from here until he graduates from high school that will be used for pretty much all of his school work. I have to say it is a pretty sweet set-up.

@Aster: LOL. I would agree about the giving to kids who don’t have, except there’s nothing on the sheet indicating if you don’t have it, you can use the other kids’ stuff. It implies that all kids should bring everything on the list. I don’t mind, I am just curious if this is typical.

Yes, every year we get a long, detailed list of what they must have, including specific colored folders for specific things, which are occasionally difficult to find. Stuff like “plastic red folder with pockets, no brads. Plastic yellow folder with brads, no pockets.” UGH.

The cool thing is that our school offers “Wrappacs” which is where you send a check for the Wrappac total, and they have all of your child’s supplies neatly bundled and ready for “Meet the Teacher” night right before school starts back. I go ahead and purchase the Wrappacs each year, because the specificity of the list takes all the fun out of letting my kids shop anyway. So, I buy the Wrappac, then take them shopping for extra pencils and stuff, so they get to buy a few unique things.

@jca in our old district there was always a disclaimer at the bottom that if parents couldn’t afford these things that it was ok and they should speak to the teacher.

@SuperMouse: This doesn’t have that disclaimer. Now I“m sure that in reality, if a parent didn’t have it, they can’t make them not attend the school, since it’s public, although it is in an affluent district.

Wow. I don’t have kids, but that list is crazy, and I see everyone here is basically agreeing they have long lists both public and private.

What’s the deal with two library books?

@cprevite My girlfriend used to help organize the fundraiser for her chidren’s private school, and honestly if I sent my kid to private school I would rather just write a bigger check and leave me alone. I feel that way about public school too actually. Especially if @Aster is right and some of these items are shared. Seems they could buy thing less expensively in bulk and it would be less stress for me as a mom to worry about buying all these things.

@JLeslie: I didn’t mean for it to come out that way- the “2 library books” is part of backpack big enough to hold, this, that, the other thing and two library books.

My daughter is going to need a U-Haul to bring it in on the first day, and the school will need a warehouse to store it all LOL.

2 boxes of everything sounds excessive, especially since it seems to me that any supplies that don’t fit in the “small storage box” will be shared. But as a whole, this is very similar to the school supply lists that I got in elementary school. Aside from the things that were absolutely required, though, I tended to go rogue and pick out whatever I wanted.
I just had to have the matching Lisa Frank set and gel pens! I’m an office/school supply addict, and I have been even since I was little.

I remember when I was little, I brought a few pencils, erasers, scissors and maybe some glue and a ruler in my bag and that was it.

In looking at the list and thinking about it, I am wondering how it went from having to have about 5 items each, like when I was little, to needing a list with over 20 things on it, such as my daughter is required to have.

I was shocked when I moved to California that the school supplies ALL the school supplies here. I was used to getting a list like this growing up in Oregon. Maybe that has something to do with why we have a budget crisis.

Do some kindergarteners still snack on crayons, markers,erasers, glue? If not, that list is excessive.

This is a pretty lengthy list. Where I live, the standard kindergarten supply list goes something like this:

- 1 pack of crayons
– 1 pack of pencils
– a folder
– a composition book
– 2 packs of paper
– a mat or towel for nap time

However, some teachers will send out a list at the beginning of the year and state what kind of things they need for their classroom and let generous parents donate. It works out pretty well.

Actually, the lists for the public schools here in my locale are longer. We homeschool. Our friends show us their lists. Generally for Kindergarten the list is 20–30 items long. Here each child must have their own sleep mat (PreK & K), also.

Then, the list for items from home (change of clothes, etc) is on another sheet.

I recall having to buy less than 10 things per year for elementary school. To me, these lists are out of hand. It now costs over $12K per annum for tax payers to teach a kid. Why doesn’t that cost include crayons & glue? Those are standard Kindergarten materials.

Here you have to supply toilet paper if the class has an attached toilet. Seriously???

@Judi We also have a budget crisis…But here in the Milwaukee area the costs to teach a child have increased dramatically. Yet the supplies are not provided. It makes zero sense.

Seems like my list to me. Pretty much to a tee.

I asked why they supply all the needed items here (CA). I was told that there are so many poor kids who could never afford the supplies and it helps keep give every kid a chance to succeed.

Nope. The only message I got was ‘keep his bus card because they will be reused in the new year.’ But at my son’s school, all I need to send him with is a backpack and a pencil case with pencils and erasers and a sharpener. I bought him a cute notebook and plastic folder case and some novelty erasers just for fun. His classroom has a full array of coloured pencils for the students and they are given notebooks and pencils.

Our 1st graders (we don’t have kindergarten, as such, here.) are issued special backpacks so that they can be easily identified. They are bright florescent orange with a special emblem on the back. This alerts staff, bus drivers and older students that ‘Hey! We got a Noob here!’ so they can look out for them and show them the ropes and give them a bit of a break if they are found wandering in the wrong place. Some parents choose to use that into their second or third year, but I bought my son a ‘big boy’ back pack last year because it seemed important to him. I also have to send him with a lunch pack because our schools do not do hot lunches and we pay for their milk/juice/yoghurt service at the beginning of the year.

I am really amazed that they want parents to supply white board markers and wet wipes. That sounds a bit nutty. Crayons, I thought, went the way of the dinosaur, especially if they also want Crayola markers. Having both sounds redundant to me. (My son could never use crayons or small chalk because of his oral fixation. More crayon in him than on the page.)

It’s pretty comparable to what we had to do for elementary school students. Some of the supplies are for your student’s personal use, and others are probably for general classroom use. I’m pretty sure more stuff used to be provided by the school districts (when I was a kid), but money has been tight for a long time in public school systems.

Nope… they need a uniform and sports clothers, after which the school takes care of the rest.

That looks like the standard list. Wait until 3rd grade for “5 Flair Black Ultra Thin” for writing in ink over the pencil drafts!

A lot like Kleenex and wipes and dry erase are the general class room supplies.

That was my first reaction, but believe it or not, they do go through most of it. Wait for the sales that will come on soon and most if not all you can buy with pretty decent savings. There will be fierce competition amongst the retailers for your school dollars.

@JLeslie: That’s what we ended up doing.

principal: “Wehavethesegreatfundraisers…”

me: “What do I owe you?”

principal: “Butthey’resomuchfunand…”

me: ”What do I owe you?”

principal:…. ”$350.00”

me: “Here ya go.”

We’re in California and the kids get a long list of supplies to buy. I have a friend who is a teacher and her class tends to be mostly poor kids – she buys most of the supplies herself along with a few friends who donate to her cause.