Back to School: Getting Up to Date with Required Vaccinations

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

The first day of school for Chicago Public Schools is just weeks away, but a myriad of problems continues to plague the district and even threaten the ability of schools to open on schedule. With ongoing conflict between school leaders and the teacher’s union, accusations of lying, and even a bond downgrade by Moodys’, CPS doesn’t look like a district getting ready to welcome students back to their schools. Will the problems be resolved by the looming August deadline?

Is a Strike Inevitable?

Disagreements between the teacher’s union and school administrators continue to heat up, and talks of a strike are concerning many in the Chicago school district. CBS News reports that a recent rejection of a fact finder’s recommendation fuels worries that teachers and school leaders will not be able to come to an agreement before the school year begins. The recommendation included a double-digit raise for district teachers, a move district officials have said they simply cannot afford.

The fact finder, Edwin Benn, made the recommendations after the two sides failed to come to an agreement on the proposed budget for the upcoming school year. The proposed $5.73 billion budget included a two-percent pay increase for teachers for the next school year, but the teacher’s union has said that amount is unacceptable. The Chicago Tribune reports that teachers booed the proposed budget when it was announced earlier this month.

The proposed budget also included a $665 million deficit, increased property taxes

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 Huffington Post, 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 Department of Education’s website, “If a single-sex classroom is provided, the