Back-to-School Survey: One-Third of Teens Say Rising Cost of School Supplies a Concern
A new survey by Junior Achievement USA shows that a third of teens (33%) say that their parents or guardians are concerned about the cost of back-to-school supplies this year. A higher percentage of teens (37%) express concern they will not be able to get every item they need for back-to-school, and nearly as many (34%) say they have depended on teachers, community donations, and other sources to get supplies in past school years. The survey of 1,004 U.S. teens between the ages of 13 and 17 was conducted from July 5 through 10 by Big Village.
“Families in the communities that JASoCal serves are strained. They are facing hard decisions on how to prioritize back-to-school costs in their already stretched budgets, said Alex Rojas, Senior Program Manager at JASoCal. “The rising costs of nearly all necessities along with continued supply chain issues will undoubtedly cause more stress on parents and students.”
JASoCal, in partnership with EY Los Angeles, are working to help lift the burden on parents and caretakers by packing 400 backpacks with much needed supplies on August 8th and 9th for distributing to the 400 K-8 students of Para Los Ninos Charter Elementary and Middle Schools on the first day of school.
In the survey, teens were also asked how much they thought their back-to-school supplies would cost this year. The average estimated cost was $238. However, according to a recent back-to-school survey by Deloitte, parents estimate the average cost will actually be $661 per student.
“The need is great. We want to encourage everyone who can to donate school supplies to schools directly or to organizations, like JASoCal, who work with young people in your community,” said Rojas. “Kids need to focus on learning, not worrying about having the supplies that are needed to be successful in the classroom”.
To help parents and guardians talk to their kids about inflation, Junior Achievement USA is releasing A Parents’ Guide: Talking to Your Kids About Inflation. Written at a level young people can understand, the guide explains what causes inflation and what can be done about it.
Parents can download that here: https://jausa.ja.org/dA/d6ba5bce32/criticalIssuePdfDocument/A%20Parents%20Guide%20on%20Inflation.pdf
Methodology
This Youth CARAVAN survey was conducted by Big Village among a sample of 1,004 13-17-year-olds. This survey was live on July 5-10, 2022. Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have volunteered to participate in online surveys and polls. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to multiple sources of error, including, but not limited to sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. It is nationally representative with set quotas based on census data. The 1,004 completes are all who qualified and completed based on the demographic quota requirements. The MoE is +/- 3.1%.