The cost of school supplies has grown. Teachers still pay for much out-of-pocket.

The Sioux Falls Public Schools Education Foundation awarded 70 first-time Sioux Falls School District teachers with $200 grants for classroom supplies during new teacher orientation Monday morning.

These grants should help put a dent in the more than $670 a teacher spends out-of-pocket on average each year on school supplies, according to the Association of American Educators .

In the past, teachers have used the grants to purchase things like posters, art supplies, books, dry-erase markers, school supplies and snacks for students.

Monday’s announcement also marked the Foundation’s awarding of 1,000 of these grants. It started with $100 grants in 2011, then moved up to $200 grants in 2017.

But $200 in August 2017 has the same buying power as a little more than $250 today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator .

Foundation executive director Allison Struck said she would love to be able to increase the dollar amount of these grants in the future. While those 70 teachers received grants Monday morning, more could be awarded funds as more positions are filled ahead of when the school year starts next Thursday.

She also said the Foundation is launching a new type of grant next week for second-year teachers to “replenish the room," which will help more senior educators refill classroom supplies like board games that are missing pieces, books with beat-up covers, well-loved paintbrushes and more, for example. The Foundation will randomly select two teachers at each school to benefit from the $15,000 grant funding.

Elementary teachers who spent upward of $800

Head Start supervisor Erica Kogel said school supplies have gotten so expensive, that outside of philanthropy and school supply drives, the cost often falls on the program and teachers. She said school supplies have even been expensive to purchase for her own children and estimates the cost of everything has “almost doubled.”

She has a child at Discovery Elementary School and two at Jefferson High School. In the past years, Kogel estimates she’s spent $150 on school supplies for her kids, but this year, it’s almost twice as expensive.

Noelle Hofer, a new first grade teacher at Hayward Elementary School, said she’s spent $800 alone on her classroom and school supplies, since a lot of students can forget their supplies. She stocked up on 15 to 20 cent deals at Target, but “the extra expense is a lot.”

More: 'I feel like I'm a world-changer': Teachers often inspire their students to enter education

Brianne Ihnen, a new kindergarten and first grade blended classroom teacher at Hayward, estimated she’s spent $1,000 on classroom supplies. She stocked up on 60 pairs of scissors, 100 glue sticks and more during Amazon Prime days.

Ihnen said the costs add up when she also has to pay for rent and student loans, but that purchasing supplies and classroom decor makes her classroom more inviting for students “so they want to be there."

Secondary teachers also spending hundreds

Cailyn Thomas, a first-year eighth grade English-Language Arts teacher at Patrick Henry Middle School, spent about $200-300 of her own money on classroom supplies. She also sent out an Amazon wishlist to family and friends on Facebook to help purchase some things, like a rug for a reading area in her classroom and decorative posters on different types of writing.

“Those aren’t necessary, but it also is, because no one wants to go into a classroom with empty walls,” Thomas said.

Some teachers might get hand-me-down supplies from retired educators, donated books from other teachers or nonprofits like REACH Literacy, or benefit from having co-teachers to furnish their classrooms and purchase supplies together.

Eva Volk, a new eighth grade English language arts teacher at Ben Reifel Middle School, said she spent about $200 on classroom supplies like decor, a pencil sharpener and books for her classroom library, but she also benefited from the 25 free books she found at REACH Literacy.

Having a grant from the Foundation means she “won’t have to spend my own money, which I don’t have a lot of,” on other supplies for her classroom.

More: How do Sioux Falls teachers afford classroom supplies? Often, through grants and donations

Carrie Southard, a freshman English teacher at Axtell Park, said she’s spent $500 on “everything” so far for her classroom like pencils, a monitor for her computer, planners and stuff for her bulletin board. But the $200 grant will help her enhance her curriculum and make learning fun, she said.

The grant helps “keep money in my pocket to feed my family,” Southard said. “I won’t have to be so picky with what I buy.”

Instructional and athletic coaches, school counselors, principals and administrators, and orchestra and band teachers might not have to purchase as much for their classrooms as new or returning teachers, besides maybe reeds or rosin for music classrooms.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: The cost of school supplies has grown. Teachers still pay for much out-of-pocket.