School supplies - why not just allow parents to pay a fee?

[Anonymous]

New to Fairfax county schools from DC. In DC our public school just had us pay a fee for school supplies at the beginning of the year and the school would buy them in bulk. The fee could be waived for lower income families.

Why don't Fairfax county schools do that? It seems so ridiculously inefficient to have parents buying different brands/versions of x size folder or sticky note.

[Anonymous]

My kid’s ES and MS uses School Toolbox. We order the box for the appropriate grade level and the box is delivered to the school. It works great. I believe orders were due earlier this summer, so you may have missed the deadline if your child’s school does this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid’s ES and MS uses School Toolbox. We order the box for the appropriate grade level and the box is delivered to the school. It works great. I believe orders were due earlier this summer, so you may have missed the deadline if your child’s school does this.

+1, you just missed it because you’re new.

[Anonymous]

Yup we have this in our fcps

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid’s ES and MS uses School Toolbox. We order the box for the appropriate grade level and the box is delivered to the school. It works great. I believe orders were due earlier this summer, so you may have missed the deadline if your child’s school does this.

But they jack the price way up. We reuse stuff from the previous year (ie headphones and scissors) which keeps costs down. Each year the kit has new scissors and headphones. Those can easily be reused from year to year. We don’t need to buy those every year but you do if you purchase this kit. Ridiculous. DC is doing something right. Pay a fee and the school will give out the supplies. It’s way more cost effective and efficient.

[Anonymous]

Many parents wouldn't pay a fee. FCPS is a public school and cannot require families to pay a fee to be a student.

You are purchasing so many school supploes because you are supplying crayons, papers, pencils, notebooks, for kids whose parents can't or won't send in school supplies. If you don't buy extras, then the teachers end up spending their own money.

The excessive school supplies go into a class pot.

If your kid is responsible with their belongings, then they likely won't go through anywhere newr their share of the school supplies you bought.

Except for glue sticks.

Every kid in the class goes through too many glue sticks.

That is the one supply that every elementary school class of all of my 3 kids ran out of by Christmas break, every single year.

So complain about all of the excessive items on the school supply list. Except glue sticks. For glue sticks, just nod sympathetically, then send in more glue sticks after Thanksgiving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many parents wouldn't pay a fee. FCPS is a public school and cannot require families to pay a fee to be a student.

You are purchasing so many school supploes because you are supplying crayons, papers, pencils, notebooks, for kids whose parents can't or won't send in school supplies. If you don't buy extras, then the teachers end up spending their own money.

The excessive school supplies go into a class pot.

If your kid is responsible with their belongings, then they likely won't go through anywhere newr their share of the school supplies you bought.

Except for glue sticks.

Every kid in the class goes through too many glue sticks.

That is the one supply that every elementary school class of all of my 3 kids ran out of by Christmas break, every single year.

So complain about all of the excessive items on the school supply list. Except glue sticks. For glue sticks, just nod sympathetically, then send in more glue sticks after Thanksgiving.

Extras aren't always pooled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many parents wouldn't pay a fee. FCPS is a public school and cannot require families to pay a fee to be a student.

You are purchasing so many school supploes because you are supplying crayons, papers, pencils, notebooks, for kids whose parents can't or won't send in school supplies. If you don't buy extras, then the teachers end up spending their own money.

The excessive school supplies go into a class pot.

If your kid is responsible with their belongings, then they likely won't go through anywhere newr their share of the school supplies you bought.

Except for glue sticks.

Every kid in the class goes through too many glue sticks.

That is the one supply that every elementary school class of all of my 3 kids ran out of by Christmas break, every single year.

So complain about all of the excessive items on the school supply list. Except glue sticks. For glue sticks, just nod sympathetically, then send in more glue sticks after Thanksgiving.

But why is this option permitted in other public school systems then?

[Anonymous]

I prefer buying my own stuff. Is it really that hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I prefer buying my own stuff. Is it really that hard.

Winner. Winner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I prefer buying my own stuff. Is it really that hard.

No.

Inefficient? Yes.

[Anonymous]

As PPs have said, there is a prepaid option for parents. This really isn't that groundbreaking of a policy. You'll get your opportunity to overpay for prepackaged school supplies next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As PPs have said, there is a prepaid option for parents. This really isn't that groundbreaking of a policy. You'll get your opportunity to overpay for prepackaged school supplies next year.

Is the prepaid option at all schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As PPs have said, there is a prepaid option for parents. This really isn't that groundbreaking of a policy. You'll get your opportunity to overpay for prepackaged school supplies next year.

Is the prepaid option at all schools?

No

[Anonymous]

Many schools offer the option to buy a box of supplies to be directly delivered to school, but I prefer to buy them myself - we paid $40 for two kids worth of supplies this year. The boxes would have been $80 each. My kids are also using a lot of leftover things from last year - folders, scissors, erasers, barely used colored pencils and crayons, etc.