FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 30, 2014
New Studies Shed Light on Back-to-School Challenges for Low-Income Families
Communities In Schools of Tacoma to Host “Stuff the Bus” Campaign to Collect Supplies for Students to Start Year Off Right
Tacoma, WA – Communities In Schools of Tacoma will be hosting its 10th annual Stuff the Bus Campaign to collect school supplies for local students whose families struggle to afford them. On Thursday, August 21st, a big yellow school bus will visit many local businesses and organizations that are holding school supply drives at their workplace, they are asking their clients and vendor to collect donations. Community members will be sorting and stuffing backpacks on Friday, August 22nd, 8am to 6pm, at Baker Middle School.
This event will be one of several Communities In Schools back-to-school supply drives taking place around the country to help low-income families prepare for the new year.
School supplies cost more than ever, according to the latest “backpack index,” recently released by Huntington Bank. The cost of equipping K-12 public school students for the 2014-2015 school year has jumped as much as 20 percent, says the Huntington study. And according to the National Retail Federation, total spending on back-to-school items is expected to reach $74.9 billion this year—up about 3 percent from $72.5 billion in 2013. (A downloadable infographic with highlights of the Huntington study can be found here.)
“We see far too many low income children coming to school without the proper tools to learn and strive. The simple act of giving a child what he or she needs to fully participate in school demonstrates the commitment to kids that our community cares about their future,” said Teresa Maxwell, Executive Director of Communities In Schools of Tacoma.
What: Join us as we fill backpacks with school supplies on
When: Friday, August 22, 2014
Time: 8am-6pm
Where: Baker Middle School
To learn more visit www.tacoma.ciswa.org
“It has become irrefutably clear that poor students lag well behind their more affluent counterparts, even when the educational basics appear to be the same,” said Dan Cardinali, President of Communities In Schools, the nation’s leading dropout prevention organization. “We need to level the playing field and make sure that students get what they need to succeed, including school supplies, food, clothing, health and dental care, and other services such as counseling and academic assistance.”
Communities In Schools also offers the following tips to parents to offset the cost of school supplies:
· Reuse folders, backpacks and other items from previous school years
· Organize a swap with neighbors of new or gently used school supplies
· See if donations are available from your school or local community organizations
· Shop around and compare prices on goods at different retailers
*A downloadable infographic highlighting these tips for parents can be found here.
Every 26 seconds, a young person in America drops out of school, resulting in a staggering 1.2 million student dropouts each year. Individuals who do not finish high school earn nearly $1 million less over a lifetime than college graduates. Each year’s dropouts will cost the nation billions in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetimes. Much of this can be avoided through proven dropout prevention programs like CIS.
About Communities In Schools
Working with both schools and their surrounding communities, Communities In Schools does whatever it takes to help kids stay in school and succeed in life. Based directly inside schools throughout the country, Communities In Schools connects students and their families to basic and critical educational and community-based resources, tailored to each student’s specific needs. Operating in more than 2,200 schools in the most challenged communities of 26 states and the District of Columbia, Communities In Schools serves 1.3 million young people and their families every year. As the nation’s leading dropout prevention organization, Communities In Schools is the only one proven to both decrease dropout rates and increase graduation rates. For more information on Communities In Schools, please visit: www.Tacoma.ciswa.org