An item that has been showing up on recent school lists for elementary, middle and some high school students are items for the computers at school. For us it has been small and simple items like a set of quality headphones.
For friends of ours, it was a certain version of Microsoft software. Unfortunately for our friends they didn't have that particular version and ended up buying it. Of course this was after meeting with school officials and explaining the situation only to be met with "sorry, it has to be this particular version". It was explained to our friends that their system would not open a different version and since all the reports done in that class were expected to be in this particular software their child would get an F if the teacher couldn't open and see the reports. When this Mom headed off to buy the particular software, it put a big dent in her budget.
For some schools, it's a particular software such as Reader Rabbit or something similar. A lot less expensive than Microsoft but still software. That begs the question, what if a parent doesn't own a computer? How can a school ask a parent to buy a computer? What happens if the child can't do homework because they don't have a computer?
Important questions that I think many more parents will be faced with. As our government continues cutting back on the education budget and our school lists grow, how will parents cope?
The first thing to do is to find out from your school what exactly do they need. Do you have to have a particular brand or version of something? Is it something that your child will have to share? Is it something that will really be used often?
Another suggestion is that if you know another child who needs the same thing you might consider splitting the cost. What if three or four could form a small co-op? If a particular software is needed talk to the school or your local school board representative and see if they might be able to get some sort of discount on a bulk number of items. This type of situation can sometimes benefit the school as well if the particular company will donate a portion of the profit to the school as a "fundraiser" type of write-off.
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