Website makes supply shopping easy

Published 10:00 pm Thursday, August 11, 2016

Parents can breathe a little easier as they prepare for back-to-school shopping with a new website.

TeacherLists.com allows parents to look up the school supply lists for their students at no cost. To date, more than 800,000 lists from 50,000 schools have been posted nationwide, according to Dyanne Griffin, TeacherLists program director.

“For decades, the supply list process has been a frustration for parents,” stated TeacherLists president John Driscoll in a press release. “‘Where to find the lists? When are they available? Forgetting the list on the counter at home?’ All of those issues are solved with TeacherLists.”

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Several city schools have begun to use the website as well, and the feedback has been positive.

“Parents have called and said they couldn’t find copies of the lists at Walmart or other stores,” said Lorri Banks, principal at Kilby Shores Elementary. “Now, this gives parent more than one way to get supply lists. This also helps reduce paper and is more green.”

In 2013, TeacherLists was founded as an alternative to paper copies of school supply lists. Even in recent years, online versions of school lists “were more difficult to view on phones and tablets because of the PDF formatting,” Griffin said.

The website provides a clean, simple format for computers, tablets or smartphone.

In addition, the website offers coupons and a donation feature. Teachers have the option to post wish lists of items they need for their classrooms. Registered users can then pledge donations toward these items.

Users can also send out shareable web links of their schools’ wish and school supply lists.

Within the last three years, the company has expanded and collaborated with multiple retailers and partners, to include Target and Staples.

Target, in particular, also offers a similar streamlined school shopping system.