SAN DIEGO - Rising inflation is now affecting San Diego County families in another aspect of life: back to school shopping.
The National Retail Federation says parents will likely spend an average of $864 on school supplies, up $168 from pre-pandemic times. Flynn Foster tells reporting partner 10 News back to school shopping this year has been tough.
"It's been very difficult because some of the prices have gone up 50 percent higher than it usually is," said Foster. "Obviously it's impacting our way of life because everything else is inflated, all school supplies."
Even though Foster is home-schooling her daughter, she's paying about the same as other parents for her child's school supplies.
"Having to pay 800 dollars for school supplies is unfortunately not surprising to me because of everything going up, even her backpack costs a lot of money," said Foster.
Prices for clothing, accessories and the essential school supplies are the main areas where parents will see those price increases.
To help ease the burden on families, the San Diego Unified School District is supplying basic school supplies to all students while its Youth in Transition department helps underserved students get backpacks and other items. Poway Unified also has a similar program to help disadvantaged youth.
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