(Photo: Laura Rivera/UnSplash)

Parents of local students can look forward to a lighter financial load in the upcoming school year, thanks to the district’s continued efforts to ease education-related expenses.

For the 2025–2026 academic year, families with Lafayette County School District students in grades K–6 will not need to purchase general school supplies. Instead, the district will once again provide items such as paper, pencils, notebooks, crayons, and other classroom necessities.

Parents will only be responsible for personal items like backpacks, water bottles, and lunchboxes.

This marks the second year the district has implemented this initiative, made possible by efficient financial planning and strategic budgeting.

Older students will also benefit. For those in grades 7–12, the district will cover most academic-related fees, including tuition for Dual Credit courses offered through community colleges and 50 percent of the cost of Advanced Placement (AP) exams, which typically cost nearly $100 each.

However, students in these upper grades will still need to bring their own general school supplies.

Additionally, some costs will remain the responsibility of families, including fees related to extracurricular clubs and activities, technology/device fees, parking permits, and certain Dual Credit expenses like textbooks and lab or registration fees.

The Oxford School District will also be providing many of the required school supplies for the upcoming school year.

Most of the supply lists for each grade have been shortened down to one or two items, outside of a backpack.

Superintendent Bradley Roberson said that through the district’s student-based budget process, the district has allotted schools enough money to cover the cost of the supplies.

Below are the supplies required by the OSD schools on the first day of school:

• Pre-K students need a backpack, a Kinder mat and a plastic reusable water bottle
• Kindergarten students need a backpack, Kinder mat, a clear zipper pencil pouch and a plastic reusable water bottle
• First-grade students need one 24-count box of Crayola crayons, 1 zipper pencil pouch, 1 reusable water bottle and a backpack
• Second-grade students need one spiral notebook and a backpack
• Third-grade students need two composition notebooks and a backpack
• Fourth and fifth-grade students need one composition notebook, one zipper pouch, headphones (regular wired headphones or earbuds, no Bluetooth) and a backpack
• Sixth-grade students need a backpack, a reusable water bottle and headphones
• Seventh and eighth-grade students need one composition notebook, one 2-inch binder, a backpack with a laptop sleeve, and earbuds or headphones (no Bluetooth).
• Ninth through 12th-grade students need a backpack with a laptop sleeve and teachers will share additional supplies needed during the first days of classes.