Groups help prepare students, parents with school supplies
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - It’s time to go back to school, and for some parents, shopping can break the bank.
A new 2024 study from Nerd Wallet says the parents of K-12 or college students will spend $541 on average on school supplies and clothing for their kids’ school year.
10% of back-to-school shoppers say they’ll likely go into debt to pay for school supplies this year. 20% report that they’ll use “buy now, pay later” services to shop.
Here at home, from Columbia County to Aiken County, groups are coming together to help parents and students get prepared for the school year.
Back-to-school shopping is one of the factors that can make or break a new school year.
At the Hawk Law Group drive, hundreds of parents and students gathered to grab pens, pencils and more.
“We just want the kids to be ready and to enjoy going to school,” said Reid Sanders with Hawk Law Group.
Over at Lai Li’s hair salon, parents were trying to get their hands on this years hot commodity, bookbags.
But some organizers told News 12 they had a hard time getting those bookbags to every student, because they were gone before their event even made it through the first hour.
Staci Cheatham, owner of Lai Li’s hair salon said, “We had people lined up already at 10:50 and we didn’t even start until 12. So by 11:40 the lawn was full with people so we just went ahead and started. We started initially with 220 book bags. We ended up giving away all of those. And we packed grocery bags full of supplies, about 50-60 bags. And we got rid of all of those.”
CSRA back-to-school drives help families prepare, save money
We are just days away from the first day of school and there’s several school supply drives this weekend to make sure your kids have what they need.
Since 2019, the National Retail Federation found that expected spending per household has jumped almost $200.
The cost of an Aiken elementary 5th grader’s supply list for the 2024-2025 school year came to $77.85. Organizations across the CSRA are trying to help parents offset these costs with supply drives that are happening all month.
“As you can see, everything’s coming together. Tons of boxes behind us and people helping to get this thing rolling,” said Sanders.
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The Richmond County School System approved a ban on cellphones in classrooms – part of a trend as some teachers find them a hindrance to the education process.
Sanders hopes this event will help parents get their kids started off on the right foot this year.
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