When parents are thinking about back to school expenses, clothes and supplies usually come to mind. However, when sending your child to school, one should consider expanding that budget just a bit. When I was growing up, paper, #2 pencils, a book bag, folders, and notebooks pretty much covered the basics. Today that isn’t even half the list! There are so many things required of students nowadays, even the Kindergarteners are loaded down with stuff the first day. Let us not forget all the extracurricular activities, which have registration and participation fees. With all that in mind, how much does it really cost to sent your child to school?

Let’s start with clothing. If your child is like most, the majority of their wardrobe from the previous year either doesn’t fit anymore or has been washed and worn so much that most items are no longer suitable for wear. Based on your economic circumstances, and how many children you have going to school, it is very easy to spend at least $100-200 per child on new clothes, including underwear, shoes, socks, and other accessories.

Once the wardrobe is squared away, it’s time to focus on gathering school supplies. Schools do still provide required supply lists every year for each grade. However, those lists have gotten longer and much more specific. For example, at my children’s school, 1st graders must have two different writing tablets; specific sized and brand scissors; two different types of markers; multiple packs, colors, and sizes of colored paper in addition to the pencils, folders, kleenex and backpack. Some schools have geniusly started offering prepackaged school supplies. This saves parents time, and in most cases money. There’s no running to several different stores trying to get everything on the list and either still coming up short on supplies or not getting the specified brands or items. Depending on the grade level and the school, these supply packages can cost anywhere from $50-$100.

Though your child is now ready for the first day of school, your school budget is still not complete. At school orientation parents are given the opportunity to order school spirit t-shirts ($10), join the PTO ($5), and contribute to class party budgets ($6). (These amounts are based on my children’s school only.)

The first week of school will find your child’s backpack full of activities to occupy the afterschool hours. Most activities have a registration in the neighborhood of $50. Then there are equipment costs, travel expenses, and extra activity fees (if there is a special final performance there is a special final performance fee). You could be looking at another $50 easy. Parents of older students have additional activities to plan for, including school dances, spring break, prom, memory books, and graduation.

Then there are the school fundraisers, at least two per year. Not only do most parents purchase something ($10-$20) to show support for their child’s efforts, they also help with getting additional sales. Let us not forget school pictures! For regular school pictures, the average package is about $25 for one pose in multiple sizes. For high school seniors, the pictures end up costing much more than that. Yearbooks ($25) are quite important for recollecting school memories as well.

These are just some of the basic expenses associated with sending your child to school. If we were to add them all up, parents easily could spend about $500 before midterms! $500 just to hopefully get your child a decent education and learn social skills? One could argue that you can’t put a price on your child’s education. However, I think the schools already have.