Back-to-school squeeze: From 'donations' to devices, parents count the cost

Author: Imogene Bedford & Lochlan Lineham,
Publish Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2026, 9:15am

Preparing for the start of the school year can be daunting for parents, as well as students. This week the Herald tracks the growing education bill for families and gets some expert advice on how to cope. Today, Imogene Bedford and Lochlan Lineham start by looking at the overall costs.

Auckland mother Cara Roberts reckons she spends about $600 to $1000 a year on education for her 11-year-old son Aaron – depending on what extracurricular activities he pursues.

She hopes to send Aaron to Dilworth when he starts high school in 2028.

If he does not get a place there, Roberts said she will enrol him at the local secondary school, Glendowie College, for a donation of $595.

But state school donations, which ranged from zero to Auckland Grammar’s $1825, according to a Herald survey last month, are the tip of the iceberg for Roberts and other parents at this time of year.

Interviews and information from schools show parents of a student starting Year 9 in Auckland can expect to pay thousands to get them set up for high school.

The list starts with basic costs such as uniforms, devices and stationery, before families consider extras such as after-school activities, camps and trips.

And at the other end of the spectrum, parents sending their children to private schools can expect to spend $150,000 on tuition costs across five years.

Woodlands Park School principal Ngaria Stephenson said the cumulative impact of several smaller expenses is the greatest challenge for a number of Kiwi families.

Many need extra help. Struggling parents borrowed $9,016,436 in 30,735 hardship assistance grants from the Ministry of Social Development in the March 2025 quarter – money that helped them through the start of the school year but still had to be paid back.

KidsCan chief executive Julie Chapman said the charity has helped more than 1400 Aotearoa schools and early childhood centres with key costs such as food, jackets, shoes and health items in the past year.

“Cost-of-living pressures mean more families are having to make impossible choices, and it’s showing up in classrooms right across New Zealand.

KidsCan founder and CEO Julie Chapman says the charity helped more than 1400 Aotearoa schools and early childhood centres with key costs last year. Photo / Supplied

“When we talk to schools, the costs hitting families hardest are often the most basic ones – food for lunch, appropriate shoes and warm clothing. These are things many people assume are already covered, but increasingly, they’re not.”

The Herald will cover many of these costs in detail this week – but for now, here’s a snapshot of the main ones.

Devices

Most primary and secondary schools now ask parents to purchase a personal device for their children’s digital learning.

Roberts spent about $600 on a school-issued Chromebook, which is expected to last about three years.

The cheapest Chromebook listed on PriceSpy costs $416, while an Apple MacBook is priced as high as $2800.

Mother of two boys, Jodie Peters, told the Herald she spent about $1000 on two Microsoft Surface laptops for each of her sons while they were in secondary school.

Boys can be rough on their devices, so Peters recommended buying the extended warranty and investing in a good case to get the most out of their lifespan.

“You don’t want to be forking out $1000 each time or claiming on your contents insurance.”

Stationery

Parents can sometimes avoid having to cough up for textbooks and stationery, which often do not get used because of the reliance on devices, Peters said.

“Right through the years, they’ve had to buy these packs – spend $100 on the stationery [when] they don’t use anything that’s in the box.”

She purchased the full packs in their first year of college, after which she would only purchase essentials and reuse stationery from previous years.

“[We] kind of recycled the last year’s one, ripped out pages where they didn’t need it, and tried to keep it quite simple.”

Unfortunately, the advice doesn’t work for everyone. Emma, an Auckland mum of twin 12-year-old boys, said her children’s stationery was ordered direct by the school, requiring parents to pay for items they may already own.

“The parents should be able to pick and choose what they want for their child, based on what they’ve got at home and there should be school sets of fundamental things like scissors.”

Lunches

Increasing food prices have made plenty of headlines in the past year and that has also hit school lunches.

Food prices rose 4.4% in the 12 months to November last year, with a loaf of white bread rising 53.2% annually to $2.13, according to Stats NZ data published last month.

Mum of three Sarah Ostergaard says she makes savings by buying snacks for her children's school lunches in bulk. Photo / Michael Craig

Sarah Ostergaard said she spends “a lot of money on lunches” – about $100 a week for her three children.

The Stanley Bay mother said she usually packs a sandwich of some sort, plus fruit, a carrot, chips and crackers.

To save money, she often heads out west to wholesale retailer Costco to buy large quantities in bulk.

“For example, these big boxes of Tiny Teddies and stuff like that, and that’s heaps cheaper than just buying them in packs of six at the supermarket, I find.”

After-school activities

The benefits of after-school activities are well known, but that comes at a financial cost.

For those with sporty children, a standard team sport at school can cost between $100 and $200 for a season, while more premium sports can cost more than 10 times that.

Rowing, for example, sets you back up to $4890 at Auckland’s Westlake Boys High School, while at other schools the Herald looked at it would cost between $1000 and $5000.

For the creatively inclined, drama clubs across Auckland cost about $200 a school term.

One-on-one music lessons can run between $25-$80 a lesson, while group sessions cost about $200 a term.

Supporting students

The MSD’s School Education Costs financial programme allows eligible people to receive payments covering immediate or essential costs.

These could be used to pay for school uniforms, stationery and childcare costs, said MSD’s client service delivery general manager Graham Allpress.

Allpress encouraged anyone struggling with school costs to contact MSD.

“The assistance will need to be paid back and we talk through setting up repayments at a manageable level.”

Ministry of Education hautū (leader) operations and integration, Helen Hurst, advised the Herald parents who are worried about back-to-school costs can raise their concerns with their school board.

“We understand that for some families, meeting back-to-school costs can be a struggle. It’s important that there are no barriers to accessing education. Schools want children and young people to attend and will do all they can to help.”

Stephen Grady is the principal of Matua Ngaru, a Huapai primary school with a roll of more than 550 students. He said the increasing cost of living has pushed the school to find ways to help subsidise the pressures families face.

“Our board supports a fund within the budget to support families, which we use for uniforms, activity costs such as school camp or trips, and stationery, where families are struggling with financial hardship.”

Cara Roberts has high praise for the support received from her son’s primary school, Panmure Bridge. Photo / Corey Fleming