LINTON, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Indiana legislation passed this year requires Indiana Schools to provide curricular materials to students free of charge, but Linton Stockton Schools takes it a step farther by providing school supplies for free.
As we head back to school, the burden of textbook fees, Chromebook fees and more will now be lifted off of the parents. But Linton Stockton Schools Superintendent, Kathy Goad, says the legislation isn’t quite clear.
“With the new legislation, about free textbooks for all students and consumable supplies that the school normally charges a fee for it became very confusing and legislation passes, and it takes usually about a year before we finally get, ‘what is the real ruling on this?'” said Goad.
The Indiana Department of Education gives some specifics on what is deemed curricular materials, but other items, they advise schools to check with their attorney.
Back to school spending is expected to reach a record $41.5 billion this year, according to The National Retail Federation’s annual survey released in July. That number is up from $36.9 billion last year.
Linton Stockton decided to cover the cost of school supplies.
“While we 100% support the textbook support for our parents, because it takes that burden off of them, they still have the supplies and we just felt, if we’re going to get some funds for the state for our textbooks, let’s just provide the supplies as well,” Goad said.
“It’s going to cut our back-to-school shopping in half. I know that for sure,” Sarah Ray said.
Ray has two school aged children. She expects to save around $100-$200 on supplies, “I think it’s pretty awesome, that they could even do it.”
“I can’t imagine what it means to some of our parents,” Goad said. “Just the struggles that we know that they go through on a daily basis on a week-to-week basis and then come August every year and have to shop for those supplies with one child or multiple children.”
Goad said parents at Linton Schools still have the option of purchasing their own supplies. But says by purchasing supplies in bulk for the corporation they are equaling the playing field.
“All students are going to be using the same supplies this year. If you were a student in Elementary and had a box of 8 crayons and the person sitting next to you had the box of 64… we’re not going to have to deal with those kinds of issues anymore. Which I think is great for our students.”
Goad went on to say that this year, they’re focused on how much the decision may cost the corporation. “Next year we’ll know exactly what we need to provide and so we will budget that out of the amount we get from the reimbursements from the state and set that aside for our supplies. And we hope that this can continue for the future.”
