Parents feel the pinch with inflated back-to-school costs: ‘A never-ending nightmare’

The cost of back-to-school shopping is taking a significant financial toll on parents.  

It’s “a never-ending nightmare” for Tomara Grice, a parent of four from the Detroit area. 

Grice told FOX Business she faces immense stress between buying clothes that adhere to the school’s uniform requirements, getting all the necessary school supplies and fulfilling requests from teachers for classroom items.

Grice says she spends hundreds of dollars on school supplies throughout the year, even with her parents chipping in for certain things like uniforms. 

“We probably could get things from the Dollar Store, but you want your kid’s stuff to last,” Grice said. 

PARENTS PUTTING OFF PAYING BILLS, BUYING GROCERIES FOR BACK-TO-SCHOOL EXPENSES

Grice said she has to replenish supplies not only for her children, but for the classroom in general, like hand sanitizer, Clorox wipes and sometimes tissues.

Keri Rodrigues, the president of the National Parents Union and a parent of five boys between sixth and 11th grades, said the cost of sending children to public school has become “unmanageable.” 

Consumers have spent billions more on school supplies than they had during the pre-pandemic years as costs rise and the list of required items gets longer, Katherine Cullen, National Retail Federation senior director of industry and consumer insights, told FOX Business. 

This year, families with children in kindergarten through high school are expected to spend $38 billion, a significant increase from $26 billion in 2019. Families are expected to spend an average of $875, according to Cullen. 

TEACHERS STRUGGLE WITH BURDEN OF COVERING COST OF CRUCIAL SCHOOL SUPPLIES

“Every year it seems like the cost of going back to school goes up,” Rodrigues said. “And those lists that we get from teachers get longer and longer and longer.” 

Like Grice, Rodrigues also spends hundreds of dollars every year getting her kids ready for the first day of school. 

Shoppers peruse notebooks and other back-to-school items at a Walmart. (Tim Boyle/Getty Images / Getty Images)

“When we’re talking about the right folders, the right markers,” she said, adding that teachers have “very specific criteria” for what students need in the classroom. 

BACK-TO-SCHOOL SHOPPING TO COST AMERICANS MORE THAN EVER AMID INFLATION SPIKE

But it’s not just buying pencils, notebooks or even a new backpack. Rodrigues also faces the added pressure of getting everything teachers need for the classroom. 

“There are a lot of ‘asks’ that teachers have of parents at schools when it comes to actually supplying classrooms,” she said. “So, a lot of us are feeling the pinch on a regular year of having to fulfill those lists because you want to do the right thing, and you want to contribute.”

Many teachers, however, use their own money to prepare their classrooms for the first day of school.

Patrick Scott and Kristin Dood, both third grade teachers in Michigan’s Northville Public School district, will do whatever it takes to make sure their students have the supplies they need to succeed during the school year.

While Dood and Scott, both veteran teachers, would prefer not to foot the extra expense, which they say can cost them upward of $1,000 per year, they also do not think the burden should be put on parents either.

FINANCIAL PRESSURES ARE IMPACTING BACK TO SCHOOL SUPPLIES SHOPPING

“I want to do this for the kids because if I’m not doing this for the kids, it’s not going to happen,” Scott said. 

Danielle Pietrandrea, a fifth grade teacher in the same district, carries the same burden, shelling out hundreds of dollars of her own money each year to supply her classroom with the things needed to help her children.

“Our district provides us with around $150 for the year to cover classroom costs. That is enough to buy a couple posters, maybe a border set for a bulletin board and some markers and pens,” Pietrandrea said. 

In a year when parents are already contending with high inflation, “it’s unmanageable what’s happening now,” Rodrigues said.

Many teachers use their own money to prepare their classrooms for the first day of school. (Patrick Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Fulfilling their needs inside the classroom is only part of the battle. According to Rodrigues, sneakers for a handful of kids can cost well over $100. 

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When that’s all added up, Rodrigues said it costs about $1,000 to $1,200 just to be prepared to walk through the door of the school.

“When you’re dealing with rising costs, rising rents, the cost of utilities, everything else that is on the plate right now, it’s just really tough out here,” Rodrigues said.

“Parents have to make these kinds of tough choices because our elected officials aren’t doing a good enough job for us.”