Fort Worth ISD will pay for elementary school supplies this year. Here’s what to know
This Friday begins a three-day sales tax holiday less than two weeks before parents send their children back to school.
The three-day holiday gives parents and their children a chance to save about $8 on every $100 they spend, according to the Texas Comptroller. The qualifying items include clothing, footwear, school supplies and backpacks priced below $100.
But this year, Fort Worth ISD is footing the bill for traditional school supplies, allowing parents to spend more on technology, apparel, and health products -- all items projected to make the 2021 back-to-school season one of the most expensive ever.
Jerry Moore, the district’s chief academic officer, said parents should focus on getting their children ready for school.
“Worry about getting your students and yourself in an environment where this is a safe place to go. Don’t worry about trying to go get those supplies,” Moore said. “We’re going to have them in the school building. We’re going to have them in your classroom ready to go.”
The materials the district will provide vary by grade, but include pencils, markers, crayons, glue sticks, scissors, paper, folders, tissues, baby wipes and containers.
According to the Deloitte 2021 Back-to-School survey for the DFW area, parents will spend $1,087 per child on average -- 78% higher than the national average.
Sam Loughry, the U.S. Audit & Assurance Consumer Industry Leader for Deloitte, said that half of that spending is projected to be on technology, with parents spending less on traditional school supplies overall.
“Even though people expect to be back in school, the model has kind of shifted to where respondents believe that technology is going to be a higher portion of their overall spend,” he said. “We’re seeing that less of the budget is going to the traditional school supplies.”
That includes in the youngest grades, pre-K through third grade, where technology has been an increasingly large part of the learning experience. But Fort Worth ISD is providing electronic devices to them too as part of a six-year-old initiative aimed at ensuring every student has their own device.
The full list items that will be tax-free this weekend can be found on the comptroller’s website.
Mental health and safety
Olayinka Moore-Ojo, the district’s director of Early Learning, said the move to provide materials will help both students and teachers focus on the important facets of learning as they return after more than a year of disruption.
“Everyone is trying to get over COVID,” she said. “And school supplies seem like something little, but it does help in the grand scheme of things as we talk about what is needed for instruction and success.”
Ojo said there is a social emotional component of providing the materials for both the teachers and the students by taking their minds off of the stress.
The Deloitte survey, which was published in July, showed that 48% of respondents were anxious about sending their child to school, with 67% concerned about their families health. District officials say that the added supplies will allow for less sharing, and more distancing when needed. The survey was conducted before the most recent surge in cases of the Delta variant.
Marcey Sorensen, assistant superintendent of Teaching & Learning, said the extra materials for projects like dry-erase markers, glue and scissors, will allow distancing and independent work when needed.
“We want there to be a plethora of those materials so we can take take that off of parents’ minds,” she said.
In addition to traditional supplies, parents are also increasing their spending on products like masks and hand-sanitizers, items that have become ubiquitous, especially in classrooms of younger children. With children under the age of 12 unable to get a vaccine, parents like Emily Youree are adding personal hand sanitizer to their back-to-school shopping list.
“I am happy to do that,” she said. “This year, lysol wipes and hand sanitizer is just as important to me as scissors and glue.”
Youree, who has two young children attending FWISD schools said the district paying for supplies has been a relief, both financially and logistically, as she navigates the many questions surrounding returning to school amid the ongoing pandemic.
“It also, in a very real way, keeps us safer,” Youree said. “Because we’re not needing to take our kids out, going to stores and that type of thing during this surge in our local COVID cases.”
