There is something special about the first day of school.
Whether it is a kindergartener walking into a classroom for the first time, or a teenager heading into another year of high school, thinking about college, a first job, or finally getting behind the wheel.
The milestones change, but the rituals are familiar.
A new backpack. Fresh notebooks and pencils. The first-day outfit laid out the night before. A hurried cup of coffee while packing lunch and getting everyone out the door on time.
My son starts kindergarten this year, so I know that excitement firsthand. There is pride in watching your child grow up, mixed with the realization that it is all happening too fast.
Across Fairfax, families are getting ready for those exciting moments when schools reopen on August 24.
But this year, there is another moment many parents will recognize: taking a second look at the sales receipt.
According to an analysis by Groundwork Collaborative, families are paying nearly 8 percent more to stock a backpack than they did last year. Notebooks are up 23 percent. Lunchboxes are up nearly 27 percent. And families packing lunches could spend almost $400 more per child over the course of the school year.
Parents will still zip up the backpack, take the picture, and send their kids off with a smile. But behind that smile, plenty of parents are already figuring out where else they can cut back.
What can wait until next month? Can we cut something from the grocery cart? Put off a purchase? Carry a balance on the credit card?
Back-to-school shopping is exposing a bigger problem: everyday life has become too expensive for too many families.
And President Trump’s economic agenda is why families are getting sticker shock. An analysis by Joint Economic Committee Democrats found that since he took office, the average Virginia household has spent more than $2,900 extra on goods and services.
Trump’s chaotic tariffs are sticking Fairfax families with the bill. His trade policies are making the shoes, clothes, school supplies and electronics parents are buying right now more expensive. Trump may set the tariffs from the Oval Office, but Fairfax families are paying the price at the checkout counter.
I voted earlier this year to end Trump's tariffs on Canada, and I'll keep pressing Congress to take back its say over trade. Another round of tariffs expired last month because Congress never extended them. Almost immediately, the Trump administration imposed new ones under a different law. That is not how this is supposed to work. No president should have unchecked power to keep raising prices in the school supply aisle.
Families are also still feeling the consequences of the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” Trump and congressional Republicans enacted last year. The law cut food assistance, and analysts project that as many as 18.3 million students nationwide could lose access to free school meals as a result of the SNAP changes. At a moment when parents are already paying more to pack a lunch, Washington should not be making it harder for children to get one at school.
President Trump and congressional Republicans made these choices. We can choose differently.
That's why I'm a cosponsor of the Restoring Food Security for American Families and Farmers Act, which would repeal those food assistance cuts and protect school meals for children.
I’m also a cosponsor of both the Child Care for Working Families Act to bring down one of the biggest expenses parents face and the American Family Act to expand the Child Tax Credit, so families have more room each month for groceries, clothes, child care and everything else that comes with raising a child.
For Fairfax families who need help today, Fairfax County Public Schools is accepting applications for free and reduced-price meals throughout the school year at fcps.edu/frm. Students who qualify can receive breakfast and lunch at no cost.
On August 24, parents across Fairfax will snap one more picture, hand over a lunchbox, and watch their children head off to begin a new school year.
We will smile because they are excited, and because these moments pass too quickly.
But parents should not have to hide financial stress behind that first-day smile.