CINCINNATI -- Some elementary students will enter their second week of the school year without the supplies their parents purchased.
The Schoolkidz program is popular at Locust Corner Elementary because it's so easy.
"They don't have to go to four different stores looking for red folders and blue folders and green folders and yellow folders," Locust Corner Elementary Coordinator Jennifer Monroe said. "With a couple of clicks, they get the entire kit ordered and the kit miracuolously shows up in their child's classroom."
But it's not so miraculous when the kits don't show up. Parents like Jason Taggert reported earlier in the week that the supplies hadn't arrived.
"You're a day before school and they say it's going to be a week or longer, and so now we've got to go figure out how to get more school supplies," he said.
Taggert has third- and fifth-graders at the school. Luckily, the third-grade kits came in this week.
Parents paid for the kits in May.
"You don't have to worry about it, right? You pay three months ago and just say, 'I need a third-grade packet or a fifth-grade packet' and we're done," he said.
Some children get backpacks and lunch boxes, too. But more than a third of the students who ordered here still don't have theirs.
"If you've already paid for the complete kit, you don't want to go out and buy more school supplies because you know that they will eventually get here," Monroe said.
Staples, Schoolkidz parent company, sent 9 On Your Side a statement Friday afternoon saying they will be working with people on some form of refund:
"Due to overwhelming demand and a backlog in our warehouse, delivery of some of our Schoolkidz back-to-school kits was unfortunately delayed. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused for our customers, as we haven’t met their expectations and know how important these orders are during back-to-school. Because we’ve disappointed our customers, we are expressing our long-term commitment to them through a combination of make-good efforts that we’re customizing for each customer. Our top priority now is to ensure that students have the supplies they need as soon as possible and we are working diligently to provide them. Again, we are truly sorry for any negative experience our customers have had."
The PTO said Locust Corner will not use Schoolkidz again next year. They're already looking at other vendors.
