The state’s Tax Free Weekend begins Friday, and it may be a good time to purchase school supplies for your child.
Putnam County Schools Elementary Instructional Supervisor Diana Wood said students in the Putnam County school system will not need anything that is not on the school supply list. The system consolidated school supply lists last year to save parents money.
“It’s a perfect time to go ahead and get those supplies and have them ready,” Wood said. “As we start school, you can even bring them in on the registration day, that 10 o’clock day on July 31. So maybe beat the rush, of course, there will probably be a rush for tax-free, but absolutely, to go ahead and get them and have them ready anytime before that first day of school is great.”
Wood said school supplies are expensive nowadays. Wood said parents may want to purchase the more expensive items this weekend.
“A backpack is probably the most expensive thing on there,” Wood said. “Sometimes kids will just reuse theirs from the years past, depending on what kind of condition it’s in from the previous school years.”
The Putnam County School Supply list does not list specific brands for school supplies. Wood said the brands of the supplies do not matter.
“It really doesn’t,” Wood said. “You know, occasionally you will have a teacher, and I was a teacher that liked certain pencils and things like that, but that would be the kind of thing that I would use my school money to buy, but parents are welcome to buy the brand that is most economical for them, so no, certain brands are not required.”
Wood said in some cases, children may not have all the necessary school supplies on the first day of school. Wood said if parents are facing financial hurdles, the school system may be able to assist in obtaining school supplies.