Families with kids in K-12 are on pace to spend a record $863.86 per family this back-to-school season, pushing total national spending to $43.3 billion, with shoes emerging as one of the categories pushing prices higher than ever, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2026 survey, first widely reported by local news affiliate WSLS.
Key Points
- Total K-12 spending is up from $39.4 billion last year to $43.3 billion this year, an increase of roughly 9.89%.
- Shoes account for $174.01 per family and $8.7 billion nationally, the third-largest of the four spending categories NRF tracks.
- Electronics remain the single biggest line item at $293.11 per family ($14.7 billion total), ahead of clothing at $250.29 ($12.5 billion) and school supplies at $146.45 ($7.3 billion).
Where the Money Is Going
The survey, fielded July 1–8, 2026 by Prosper Insights & Analytics on behalf of NRF, polled 7,677 consumers with a margin of error of ±1.1 percentage points. Shoes sit in an unusual spot in the breakdown: unlike supplies or accessories, footwear is one of the few back-to-school categories where growing kids create genuine, unavoidable replacement need every school year, giving retailers less resistance when raising prices on the category than they’d face on more discretionary items.
The spending increase isn’t isolated to K-12 households. NRF’s companion survey found college students and their families spending an average of $1,437.79 this year, pushing total college-related spending to $103.5 billion — the first time that figure has topped $100 billion. Combined, K-12 and college back-to-school spending now exceeds $146 billion nationally.
What It Means for Families
- Shoe prices climbing alongside overall back-to-school inflation means budgeting for footwear separately, rather than folding it into a general “clothes” line item, may better reflect actual costs.
- Comparing this year’s $863.86 average against last year’s $858.07 shows the per-family increase, while real, is modest — the more dramatic shift is the $3.9 billion jump in total national spending.
- Families with multiple children in different grade bands should expect supply lists and shoe-replacement needs to compound faster than the average figures suggest, since NRF’s numbers reflect spending per family, not per child.
NRF has tracked back-to-school and back-to-college spending separately since 2003, and this year marks the highest combined total the survey has recorded, a trend the organization has linked to both genuine price growth across categories and steady enrollment in supplemental school programs that add their own supply and clothing demands on top of the core list.
