Lincoln-Bassett teacher Alexander Oji thanks DeLauro for her work supporting families.
Parent Ellen Puzzo: Back-to-school supplies keep getting more and more expensive.
Ellen Puzzo has dreaded back-to-school shopping for her ten-year-old son this year because of the shockingly high prices she saw when buying a new water bottle, book bag, lunch box, and fruit snacks.
That sticker shock prompted her to stand beside U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro in the Hill on Wednesday as New Haven’s congresswoman detailed a proposal for a permanent, expanded child tax credit.
DeLauro and Puzzo gathered with other local children’s advocates at the Boys & Girls Club of Greater New Haven at 253 Columbus Ave. to stress the need for a monthly child tax credit for families like Puzzo’s that are experiencing the surging cost of school supplies this year.
Lincoln-Bassett School kindergarten teacher Alexander Oji spoke on Wednesday about his experience as a teacher preparing for the fall. He said he’s doing what many school staffers do each year — which is voluntarily paying out of his own pocket to fill the supplies and other needs of his students that parents can’t afford.
DeLauro reported that the 2026-27 school year will cost families on average close to $4,000. “That is nearly an 11 percent increase from last year,” she said.
School supplies cost nearly 8 percent more than last year, DeLauro said, at a time when “families can least afford it.” That means supplies are likely to cost on average for families this fall about $175, according to a recent report by Groundwork Collaborative.
DeLauro also reported that “45 percent of parents plan to take on debt to afford back-to-school shopping this year.”
The press conference was held for an audience of Boys & Girls Club summer campers. Students listened in as DeLauro told them that, while their families are working hard to meet their needs, the struggle has gotten worse this year.
DeLauro pointed to two key issues driving the back-to-school affordability crisis. First, she said the war in Iran is driving up oil and gas prices, which will spike transportation costs as well as the cost of manufacturing plastic. Second, she said the Trump administration’s tariffs are driving up pricing for imported goods, including many school supplies.
She gave the example that a lunch box in 2025 cost around $15. Now prices are around $19 for a lunch box. She also said that filling up that lunch box with groceries will cost $400 more — an increase of 11 percent — than it did last year.
“Sliced turkey and ham has gone up 12 percent. Sandwich bread has gone up 22 percent. Apple juice 20 percent. Animal crackers about 12 percent,” DeLauro reported.
Adding on school clothes to the back-to-school shopping list, DeLauro said Carters, Vans, and Gap have raised their prices.
DeLauro spoke up in support on Wednesday of the American Family Act, which would make permanent an expanded monthly child tax credit first implemented in 2021. DeLauro’s plan would increase the value of the 2021 child tax credit from $2,000 per child to $6,360 for newborns, $4,320 for children ages one through six, and $3,600 for children age six through 17.
DeLauro said that one third of the parents that received the child tax credit used the relief for school-related expenses like transportation, tutoring, and after-school programs.
Puzzo, who lives in Wallingford, said the Boys & Girls club in Wallingford is the only reason she was able to send her ten-year-old son to camp this summer. If the Boys & Girls Club hadn’t been around, she said, her son would be home all day watching TV.
She described feeling “terrified” to go to the grocery store several times a week to shop for her family due to price increases.
Puzzo said she went back-to-school shopping on Tuesday. “I was shocked by how much everything cost,” she recalled. “We’re struggling as parents.”
She said she bought a non-branded water bottle and backpack this year because they cost the least. She noted that buying fruit snacks and other foods for her son’s lunches also stood out to her for their high prices.
She concluded that for many families like hers ,finances often “fall short” in other areas because she is doing all she can for her child.
United Way of Connecticut Director of Advocacy Daniel Fitzmaurice added Wednesday that many families are working jobs and “doing everything right” but still struggling to make livable wages. “Right now there’s no town in Connecticut where you can make $20 an hour and earn enough to live,” Fitzmaurice said.
“Groceries cost 30 percent more today than they did a year ago and paychecks haven’t gone up that much,” he said. “And this is not about whether parents are working. In Connecticut, 94 percent of households with children have at least one working adult at home. It’s just that prices are going up faster than wages.”
While work still needs to be done, Fitzmaurice said this year the state exempted non-electronic school supplies like notebooks and glue from the state sales tax. And sales tax free week was expanded this year to Aug. 16 to Aug. 22, raising the cap from $100 to $300 per item.
“There’s so much more that we can do to meet the rapid pace of the affordability crisis. In fact, every other state in our region has created a state level child tax credit to match the federal child tax credit,” he said.
Fitzmaurice concluded that parents are the core of Connecticut’s workforce by powering today’s economy and raising the future workforce. “It would return $316 million directly into family budgets but also into our local economies,” he said. “For every $1 invested in this type of credit, $5 comes back to the community in social and economic benefits.”
Oji, who also serves as an active board member for the New Haven Federation of Teachers (NHFT), emphasized that educators, paraprofessionals, cafeteria and custodial workers, and nearly all school staff work hard daily to help students. They often reach into their own pockets to help cover the costs of everything from school supplies to clothing to food and gift cards.
“Parents need support and when they feel like their kids’ needs are being met, they’re less stressed at home,” he said.
Oji also said the Trump administration must put an end to “reckless tariff policies” and the war in Iran, which are both driving up costs for families.
To concluded Wednesday’s presser DeLauro answered questions from an audience of Boys & Girls Club campers, like how long the club has been around and where DeLauro grew up.
DeLauro said the child tax credit is a high priority for her fellow Democrats and she believes when it comes time to pass, they will be in the majority.
Click here to watch the full press conference.
A Worthington Hooker student asks if families will have to pick between paying for Boys & Girls Club and school supplies. DeLauro responded that families shouldn’t have to pick between the two.
United Way’s Daniel Fitzmaurice: Families are working but still can’t afford rising costs.
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