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Back to school time is right around the corner, and parents are beginning to wonder just how much it will cost them to send their precious children into their new classrooms fully equipped for the upcoming year. A recent survey by ICSC-Goldman Sachs found the average household will spend around $300 on school supplies this fall. While that number may seem like a hefty chunk of chain to cash-strapped parents, the good news is you can trim that budget with these 10 tips for saving big on school supplies.

Check Your Inventory

Before heading out to the stores with your supply list in hand, check your current inventory to see what you might already have in stock. Those leftover, unused pencils from last year, markers that still write like new, and extra folders and spiral notebooks quickly add up when you can shop for them for free from your own stash. Consider keeping all of last year’s school supplies in a single bin to make it easy to see at a glance what you have and what you still need.

This video offers advice on back0to0school shopping.

Start Early

School supply advertisements generally begin a month or two prior to the start of the school year, so keep your eyes open for the deals. By starting early, you have the luxury of shopping every sale as it hits, saving a

Technology is being used in schools to enhance the academic experience, with a wealth of research resources offered in “real time.” However, access to the Internet also comes with its own myriad of concerns, particularly when it is children in control of the navigation process. One recent incident - where a girl was dating online while at school - exemplifies the need for discussion and action when it comes to keeping children safe on the Internet while they are in school.

This video provides a general overview of Acceptable Use guidelines.

Girl Finds Online Dating on School Computer

A 17-year-old girl in the Rochester Public School District got more than she bargained for when she went on her school computers recently. The John Marshall student found the online dating website Meetme.com during class time. According to a report at My FOX 47, the young woman made contact with a number of men from the website, many of whom wanted to have sex with her.

The student’s father said that because his daughter has special needs, as well as the mental functioning of an 11-year old, the girl’s Internet time is closely monitored at home. However, no one appeared to notice that this student had accessed the online dating site, or that she was sharing personal information like her cell phone number with others visiting the network.

Her father told the news station that he

Single-sex classrooms have been around for generations, although they have been primarily limited to elite private schools where academics are revered and rewarded no matter what the student’s gender. Today, same-sex classes are beginning to crop up in public schools across the country, thanks to relaxed restrictions by the U.S. Department of Education. Is there a benefit to segregating children into classrooms according to gender? Both the opinions of educators – and the research supporting those opinions – appear to be widely mixed.

Are Single-Sex Classrooms Becoming More Prevalent?

According to the , there were approximately one dozen schools across the U.S. offering single-sex classrooms in 2002. Currently, around 500 public schools offer some sort of single-gender classroom options for students and their parents. The exponential growth of single-sex classrooms in recent years has to do with policy changes by the U.S. Department of Education, which relaxed the requirement to segregate students within public classrooms. The changes involved Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination of students in public schools, based on their gender.

In 2006, the Department of Education determined that same-sex classrooms should be allowed under Title IX since some children learn better in single-sex classrooms than coed environments. The law requires single-sex classroom options to be completely voluntary, and it requires schools to offer traditional coed classrooms at the same time. According to the , “If a single-sex classroom is provided, the

Sugar-laden drinks like soda and some fruit juices have been linked to a wide range of ills, from the current obesity epidemic to the rising incidence of type II diabetes and heart disease in this country. The soda habit is one that frequently begins during youth, particularly for children that have the sugary drinks readily available at home or at school. Fortunately, many schools are taking a stand against allowing these types of drinks on their campuses, with fewer soda options available at public schools, according to a recent study.

Research Methodology

Recent research conducted by the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of Chicago at Illinois indicates that the availability of sugary beverages at the elementary school level is on the decline. The study, conducted by Lindsey Turner and Frank Chaloupka, used the guidelines issued by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) when analyzing their research. The IOM recommends that schools only offer students water, 100-percent juice and non-fat and 1-percent milk on their beverage menus, according to the .

Turner and Chaloupka’s research looked at five years of surveys from public elementary schools nationwide. According to , researchers were able to compile data from hundreds of schools between 2007 and 2011. The information was provided by principals and food service workers that recorded the specific types of beverages available to students and precisely where in the school those beverages were sold.

What the Numbers Show

The

Whoever said, “There is no such thing as a free lunch,” could have easily been referring to the state of public education today. In addition to the rising cost of school lunches, many other components of the so-called “free” education system in the United States are also increasing in price. As parents prepare to pack their children off for the world of academia in just a few short weeks, it is wise to weigh the cost of such an endeavor to avoid the sticker shock that many parents face today.

BYOS (Bring Your Own Supplies)

Parents who grew up in school systems that provided supplies to students are often surprised by the long supply lists they are expected to fill before the school year begins. The reports that one Brooklyn mother spent more than $300 on supplies to equip her two first-graders for their year at Public School 130 last year. Included on the list were items like construction paper, crayons, and markers.

However, this parent might have gotten off relatively easy for this school year, as other parents reported purchases of graphing calculators to the tune of $300 apiece and other expensive equipment. Others cite lists that include basic necessities for the classroom, such as hand sanitizer, soap, and paper towels. One parent even told the New York Times that rugs for the classroom turned up on one of her recent supply lists.

Tina Manis, a parent of a New