"My kids don't use highlighters," she said this week.

The single mother of children age 13, 14 and 15 said she spent about $70 per child on school supplies for the 2008-09 school year, and she doesn't see it getting any cheaper.

"There's just more and more added onto it," Ms. Suarez said. "It's very expensive when you have three kids."

To Ms. Suarez, 39, gone are the simple days of pens, pencils and Trapper Keepers. Supplies now run an average of $100 for high school students and $60 for middle-schoolers, according to the New York State School Boards Association. Add a scientific calculator (or three), and someone like Ms. Suarez suddenly can't pay her electricity bill.

"They're supposed to supply them," she said, referring to a state law that requires schools to provide the calculators. "But I don't think they have enough for each kid to check out to do their homework."

In the Southold School District, according to Ms. Suarez, each teacher requires a unique array of supplies -- quite a change from the bare-bones lists she grew up with in Port Jefferson. And she still can't figure out the use for some items.

"What do you need colored pencils for in high school?" she asked.

Mattituck-Cutchogue school board president Jerry Diffley said that the list his school generates isn't a big deal. He also has to shop from that list for his son, a sixth-grader.

"Nothing really stuck out [as excessive]," he said.

According to Tonia Wachtel, teachers at the Greenport school haven't required her daughter, Alexis, to get anything like hand sanitizer, clipboards or personalized bottles of whiteout. She said she's never spent more than $30 on Alexis, who's about to enter eighth grade. And after shopping on Saturday for her 6-year-old daughter Paige, she said she spent about $10.

"They used to send home a list -- 'this is what you need,'ââ" Ms. Wachtel said. "Now you can order from them, like school pictures, package A, B, C..."

But she said she doesn't order the packages.

"It's cheaper for me to get everything myself," she said, adding that it's a routine matter of looking for the right deals.

Ms. Wachtel, a lifelong Greenporter (GHS Class of '93), said that compared to the plethora of notebooks and books she had to buy back in the day, her daughter requires less "paperwork." She sees school supply lists becoming easier to deal with.

"They take exams on computers," she said. "And they do a lot of work out of workbooks."

Ms. Wachtel said she can see the day when North Fork schools become even more technologically streamlined.

Sree Sreevivasan, technology writer at WNBC.com, said that day will be here sooner than later, and that parents with kids entering middle and high schools should be prepared.

"It can be daunting when you walk into a store," he said. "But parents should get involved in technology with their kids."

Riverhead resident Stephanie Cawley went shopping on Saturday for her four children, ages 5, 7, 8, and 10, all of whom attend either Pulaski Street Elementary or Phillips Avenue Elementary. Though Ms. Cawley's children are a little too young for backpacks full of technological gadgetry, she said she spent a total of about $100 for all of them.

"The first couple of years, I said, 'Oh my God, what do they need all this stuff for?'ââ" she said. "But it's pretty basic stuff. They need crayons, pencils and pens."

For Ms. Cawley, the hard part of shopping for school supplies isn't the spending; it's trying to find specialty items like lined Post-it Notes, required for use as bookmarks by her kindergartener. This time of year, she said, Kmart, Wal-Mart and Target all have run out of them.

"It's like, 'OK, now I have to find these,'ââ" she said.

Like Ms. Suarez, Ms. Cawley banks the supplies her kids don't use for next year -- or as replacements throughout the year. She said school supplies aren't a one-shot investment.

"Ask me how much I've spent after they've gone through the first notebooks," she said. "Things are expensive... It sometimes feels like a lot."

This year, Ms. Suarez said, she just didn't buy certain items -- like another whole batch of highlighters -- required or not. Besides, she said, school supplies are supposed to enhance, not detract from, a children's ability to learn.

"To meet [the requirements] they want on a fixed income, as a single mother... they could downsize a lot," she said. "It's not necessary to have five different notebooks for one class."

eschultz@timesreview.com

Anastasia Hassell contributed to the reporting of this story.

That was then ...

News-Review reporter Michael White, 29, remembered verbatim what supplies he was required to have in elementary school:

Pencils

Eraser

Pencil sharpener

Paste (tube)

Safety scissors

"You had to put your pencils in a clear case so nobody would steal them," he said.

... This is now

Southold's fifth-grade supply list*:

3 spiral notebooks

2 marble notebooks

4 folders with pockets

Loose-leaf paper

Pencils

Black/blue ink pens

Red pens

Markers, crayons and/or colored pencils

Ruler with inches and centimeters

Yellow highlighters

Large box of tissues

Large soft pack of non-alcoholic wipes

Hand soap or refill

Post-it notes

Glue sticks

* Average total cost: $43.82

Grade and average school supplies cost per student, based on a sampling of required lists

Mattituck

Junior high: $148.35

High school: $163.91

Southold

Kindergarten: $60.11

Grade 2: $36.05

Grade 3: $25.79

Grade 4: $46.62

Grade 5: $43.82

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