School Supplies - Serious Question for All Teachers/those in the Know...

I think it just depends which area you are in , my son goes to public school but we don't have to pay a registration fee , so the supply list couldn't be included in that , however this year for th first time the county had an online ordering system , you just selected the grade and then ordered the whole list and it was delivered to school , so no running around this year with lists which was much better.

I am a mom and was a teacher for 11 years. I have lived & taught in NJ, FLA, OK and now OH. Each of the school districts had their specific supply list.
I think other moms have answered the questions well, but the specificity of things really does matter. Off brand crayons and scissors do not perform nearly as well as their name brand counter parts. Kids who bring in the crappy scissors get frustrated all year.
The "specific number" does matter also, because if you have most of the class show up with 24 crayons, and one child show up with 8, the kid with the little box will certainly notice - and of course, there will be the one kid who shows up with the 96 box and waves it in front of everyones face, showing off his built in sharpener and making the others feel badly about their supplies :) Plus, for young children, managing a box of 24 is reasonable, more than that is typically not.

You have already gotten some great responses. I teach Kindergarten and we do ask for name specific brands like the ones you mentioned. The reason why we pick Fiskar scissors is that they are so much easier for the kids to use. Simply they cut better. Your child may want spiderman or hello kitty and as the parent have no problem buying them thinking it's for the best. In reality your child may struggle all year long because they don't cut as well and it takes longer. Crayloa crayons aren't as waxy as other brands like RoseArt and the Crayloa markers last longer before drying out.

I do see your point about adding the money on. In theory the school district would take that money and buy the items in bulk. I have never taught at a school that asks of supply money and we generally keep the school supply list around $35 a year plus the additional cost of backpack and lunchbox.

I would check to see if you can buy your school supplies through your school. Usually at the end of the year a supply order form comes home and you can take care of it then and there for the next grade. That would help so that you don't feel like you are running around each fall.

I have no problem buying pencils, crayons, erasers, markers, glue sticks, etc for my son to keep in HIS desk and in HIS pencil box. I bought them for him not for them to be pooled so I don't send him in with a bunch of things anymore. He gets a box of crayons, a few pencils, and an eraser when he needs more it gets sent in with him through out the year. When I went to school we brought them back and forth not now they stay there I was surprised the first time he came home with homework and we didn't have any pencils because they were all in his pencil box at school. At the beginning of the year I go to open house and find out what is needed for the classroom and purchase a few things and I do it again at christmas time. When I was in elementary school they supplied everything. The school can probably get things in bulk cheaper then I pay at the store I wish they would just charge a set price at the beginning of the year to cover supplies.

I have been a teacher for 15 years. I am now a stay at home mom. Every year gets worse and worse as they cut what teachers use in their classroom to preserve other necessities. I actually worked at a school that only allowed 10,000 copies a year for each teacher. Though that sounds like a lot, it isn't. It is basically two and a half copies per student per day. If you teach first grade and they can't copy from the board you can't get through the morning without more copies and forget sending a parent letter home each week! So be thankful that by asking you to send supplies to school, perhaps other cuts are not being made.

I would ask what they are able to provide since the parents are being so generous. Perhaps it is literally a music teacher? The P.E. teacher? etc...

I don't know why they don't just bump up the registration fees but I know that often a school would not have the exact supplies I needed. (providing eight count crayons instead of 24 as an example) I would just go out and buy them but by creating these lists it makes each family responsible for having what they need instead of cutting into a teacher's already pitiful paycheck. Or perhaps they charge the registration fee for other reasons and they legally can't charge out of that account for supplies.

I just want to say thank you on behalf of your children's teachers. It does make a huge difference in the quality of the instruction if you have what you need to do your job. Imagine going to work and not having the basic necessiities like a phone or a computer and yet you are expected to sell computer equipment. It is like that for a teacher all year long.

Thanks again!

I've never heard of registration fees. I think it'd totally be a great idea to say "let's add $20 to each registration fee and tell the kids to bring nothing but a backpack." What do they say the registration fee is for??

I taught in Texas for 5 years before becoming a SAHM. Supply lists are annoying to me as well. I want all science folders to be green, all math folders blue, etc. So when kids show up with all orange folders, it drives me bezerk. And it needs to have brads for what I'll use it for in my classroom and of course they got the folders with no brads. Maybe that's why they're so specific with the list?? It'd be easier on the teachers, in my opinion, if I was given $400 to buy the supplies I WANT for my classroom. Then I could keep a classroom set of scissors and we wouldn't have to re-buy more the next year, same for rulers, crayons, etc.

Either the district personnel makes the list or a group of that grade's level teachers sit together and agree upon a list. It's never going to be a list that your child's teacher specifically made (unfortunately).

As for a ream of paper -- I always LOVED getting a ream. At the most recent school I was at, we were allocated a certain number of reams each month. Having a ream or two stashed in my classroom was always a nice treat. But it's expensive. And you are completely right - your TAXES are paying for the school building, the teachers' salary, etc and SHOULD be paying for the paper and ink used to help teach your child.

I could go on and on. Definitely don't blame the teachers. If anyone cared what we wanted, we would change it to fit our needs (and therefor the needs of our students). Sounds like district personnel and superintendent trying to milk the parents for all that they can at the beginning of the school year, when you're shelling out money for supplies, registration, school clothes. Next you'll get a letter to join the PTA for a fee. Fun eh?

ADDED:
Teachers are always wanting more Kleenex boxes. Luckily one teacher seems to get a lot more than others. My last year teaching I gave away probably 6 boxes to other classrooms. We also love dry erase markers. Is that on the list? The teachers horde them like they're gold.

Ours also included kleenex boxes, crackers, wet wipes, spray cleaner, a puzzle, etc. No lie... the list was over 40 items long... and those were to go into the "group" box.

I know our school district made the list instead of asking for a donation, because the prices varied so much. You could spend over $100 on the list at the grocery store, or $40 at CostCo.

The brand names were so that they would all be the same.

I was particularly frustrated with the constant money schtuff with this school. Not a week went by without a handout for this charity or that charity, or this school fundraiser for x, or that school fundraiser for y. Cookie sales, candy sales, bake sales, car washes, raffles, oh my. PLUS the monthly food drives, coat drives, etc. For a family where both the parents (us) were students living on financial aid (and where the teachers were required to have the boxes or money jars right by the door... with prizes for the kids who brought the most every week), it was a serious aggravation.

My mom & close friends have/are teaching at both public and private schools, this is how they have explained it to me. Usually those lists are what the teacher or your child may need during the year that the school will not cover. This has been going on since I was in kindergarten, so at least 23 years, if not longer.

The registration fee really goes to the school as a whole not your child's specific class room, so that list is the only way for the teacher of your child's class room to actually get much needed items that the school is not providing. Morethenlikely the copier paper is not for the school but for the classroom to be used as coloring paper or extra paper for the teacher to use in the class room for projects because the schools limit what a teacher can have so if they need or think they need more then the school is going to allow them the teacher has to put it on the school list.

Teachers put so much of their OWN money into classroom items because the school does not have the money for it. So you running around for a few items is NOTHING compared to what the teacher runs around for and PAYS WITH THEIR OWN MONEY for.

I myself have asked this same question. My daughter will be in 1st grade this year and her supply was really over the top. She is in public school and although I don't mind providing her with a box of Crayola crayons but why does she need 4 of them or why do I need to provide a container of Clorox wipes, etc.

I understand that they pool these supplies and yes I am a parent that has issues with that. My husband and I struggle paycheck to paycheck and to have to provide items to cover another child is not something that I am in a position to do.

I feel that teachers and school districts need to take into account that there are alot of families that have 2 or more kiddos and even if they make the list $35 cost by the time these families multiply it by the number of kiddos they could be spending upward of $100.

I taught art in high school...and I always listed very specific brands because they were the best product for the money. Also, that way we could pool all the items into a common container and everyone had the same when it was time to use it. Any student who wanted their left over supplies at the end of the year were more than welcome to take them back home. I also called at least 3 art supply places close to the school and gave them a heads up of our lists so they could order accordingly and offer price breaks.

Sometimes I had room to store 50, 8oz bottles of glue, but no way to store 100, 4oz bottles.

I had one mother read me the riot act about how her son would keep his supplies with him and they were NOT to be placed in the bins with everyone else's supplies. Guess who never had his supplies after the first week of school and used the ones everyone else brought...that boy!

Our schools had no fees whatsoever...only supply lists and we had to limit them to $30 or less. My budget to buy for kids was less than $5.00 per child for 9 months of instruction.

My husband would get so mad about how much I would spend out of pocket every year so the kids could do really cool art projects.

My kids were only given a supply list once or twice throughout the years, and we were always told that a backpack was needed. They're in high school now, and the only thing that's been recommended is a $125 calculator. I would just send my kids to school with the basics, crayons, markers, pencils, folders, paper. I think it's ridiculous that parents should supply the school with office supplies (copy paper, sharpies, post its). The school can buy these in bulk and pay a fraction of what the parents would have to pay, and the school doesn't have to pay sales tax. Why do we pay taxes? What happens if you refuse to purchase these items? We have many families in our city that can barely aford to send their kids to school with clothing and shoes, I'm not exagerating. I was recently told that 40% of the elemtary school kids don't have winter coats.

And kudos to our teachers who make those supplies go farther and farther each year.

What irks me is that teachers sent home supply lists, some or maybe most kids bring in supplies and then the teachers POOL the supplies, therefore the ones who didn't contribute still get use of supplies.....T-H-E-N.....during the year notes go home for more needed supplies (refills, etc) and the same families provide them and the ones who never sent in stuff in September, still aren't sending stuff in. Oh, and how about when supplies are stolen out of a child's desk?

Don't know why the list specify particular brands because in TX some stores sell prepacked supplies from what's on the list and they are not packed with the brand names. I would normally buy the prepacked supplies just because I didn't have to go search for each individual item on the list. But this year it was cheaper to buy them individually. We didn't necessarily get CRAYOLA either.

We get the lists in Plano TX as well.

I don't know why they are so specific down to the namebrand, count and colors of things.

I do know that in elementary school, items are pooled togethed and kept in the classroom.

In Middle School, it was too much. We got a standard supply list and then after the first day of school, we got another supply list from each teacher. I don't mind contributing but I was surprised after the 1st day of middle school. Since then, I just keep MY supply and daughter uses things as needed.

At high school, we get still get the standard list and then the individual teacher lists. The teacher list is more specific, batteries for the calculators, expo markers, board erasers, etc.

Again, I do my regular stock up and send suppies with daughter as needed. Only 1 time, last year, did I notice a grade was given for those who brought in the required supplies and those who did not. I happened to check the grades online and I had inadvertantly left something off of the math list and my daughter had a 0. After discussion with the teacher (and the product that was forgotten was turned in) the 0 was removed.