From the local paper:
Families drop by B*** Elementary School Aug. 13, the day before the first day of school, to drop off ________ and other school supplies.
Any guesses? I assure you, this was never on any school supply list when I was a kid.
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Reit This Way 
I am going to guess medicine… like Ridalin?
No, it’s a general supply to be used by anyone.
Hand sanitizer? It seems to be all the rage these days. (I’m de-lurking myself to make this guess…and I love your blog!)
Kleenex.
toilet paper and paper towels.
toilet paper. I hate seeing that on supply lists. What exactly are they doing with all that money that they can no longer afford tp? I think it’s time someone in admin took a pay cut.
teecap – welcome! good guess, but no.Mimi – you get the brass ring! The answer was facial tissue. And I have the same reaction as Jennie with toilet paper: where does all that per pupil money go that they can’t even provide tissue for the kids? Or whatever happened to “pack your own”?And even if this is just the way it is, what really got me about that photo caption was the “but, of course” attitude. I look at a package of pencils and I think school kids…but I just don’t think of tissue as a “school” supply.Kat, I think I saw preschools requiring parents to bring a roll of paper towels once. Because the tuition doesn’t cover that??? Absurd.
Michelle, my kids are in Catholic school so the “money for supplies” issue is different, of course.I’m very accustomed to requests for things like tissues and paper towels for the classroom and don’t mind providing those. No, our tuition doesn’t cover everything. And the people in the parish are complaining about their subsidy level already.BUT this year it seems a little excessive. For the middle-schoolers, EACH child is to bring 5 boxes of tissues, 3 bottles of hand sanitizer and 3 cans of Lysol wipes.For kindergarten, just send in $15 and all supplies are taken care of. All he needs is a poncho (for moving between buildings on rainy days–genius idea!) and a beach towel to cover his nap mat. Like he’ll nap. He hasn’t done that since he was 2.We go to the same pool as one of the middle-school teachers and I asked her, out of curiosity, where in her classroom she will store over 100 tissue boxes! She said, “I just moved up to this grade and had no input on the list. But my room is FULL! I have no room for this!”
My SIL was just telling me that for her K son, they are paying over $5000 in tuition for all day K and she still needs to pay a supply fee (for community crayons, etc.) AND bring in tissues, styrofoam bowls, Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, etc. Unbelievable!These schools are spoiled. How about just making do with soap and water?
I think my entire family of 7 uses 5 boxes of tissues in a year. I just don’t know what they could do with 5 boxes per child in 9 months. Do the leftovers get returned at the end of the year?And, Barb, you know how much gets spent on kids at the public schools in NJ. Private schools are very different. But when the gov’t coughs up in excess of $10k per kid, to have to provide general classroom supplies or cleaning products seems ridiculous. Personal use items from pencils to rain ponchos make sense. Hand sanitizer or tissues? Sorry. The school should provide soap and paper towels. Kids can bring their own tissues.
Maybe it is a regional thing. I remember being asked to donate one box of tissues to the classroom (public school) at the start of the year and then waiting to see how long before your box come up in the rotation. That’s why I always begged my mom for a unique box. She never gave in. More fodder for the tell all!
Problem is, kids DON’T bring their own tissues. Kids don’t bring their own ANYTHING. Even in Catholic schools, parents expect that this is provided.In our former school, the middle schoolers were each expected to bring in two packs of looseleaf. These were given to the teacher, who put them in a box in the room. If a student needed paper they could go to the box. It was all “community property.”I don’t mind as long as it will be used. A few years ago we were asked to send in aluminum foil and a few other odd items like that to be used as art supplies. When they moved the art room the next year (with a new art teacher) a few of us helped carry stuff. There were 3 milk crates FULL of foil–it had never been used. Now that toasted my marshmallows, and the other moms and I agreed we wouldn’t be sending any more art supplies.
Hey, I got the brass ring? Whohoooo, yay me!