HELENA — Summer vacation is coming to an end soon for many Montana students, which also means families will be spending potentially hundreds of dollars per student on school supplies.
"School supplies are so necessary for those students to start the first day of class just like every other student. So, they need to level the playing field to start on the right foot starting day one. It’s so important,” says Janet Riis, Executive Director of The Angel Fund.
Back-to-school season means costs for parents that can soar into hundreds of dollars every year.
MTN crunched the numbers to give you a better idea of what costs parents face during this time of year. For this story, MTN used Amazon to calculate prices.
However, the cost of school supplies may vary depending on quite a few different factors besides where they are purchased.
For example, Central Elementary School in Helena asks for a flat fee of $35 to cover most of the students’ school supplies. With the other few requests, the total comes to about $115 per student.
For a sixth-grade student at Helena Middle School, the total would come out to about $215. And for a kindergarten student at Eastgate in East Helena, the total would be about $263.50. These funds can add up for a family, especially when there are multiple kids headed back to the classroom.
“And that’s a lot when you’re trying to decide, you know, what your priorities are to spend money on this month. So, it’s pretty important, and so happy Stuff the Bus and Angel Fund can help those families,” says Riis.
The Angel Fundhelps provide school children with school supplies. Their annual Stuff the Bus campaign raised $52,000 this year. That money went directly to participating schools to use at their discretion to buy such supplies as paper, pencils, binders, and much more.
These supply costs can be just the beginning. Hidden costs such as clothing, shoes, transportation, and lunchboxes can add hundreds of more dollars to the total cost.
Riis says their Angel Fund clothing campaign will start on October 1 to provide students with clothing.
“So, if we can help just with the school supplies right away, that just helps the families that are in need. We also have our clothing campaign to help students and that kicks off October 1,” says Riis.
