“Question: What color is this folder?”

Jessica Conte, mother of a third-grader from Commack, asks that question at a Target store while shopping for school supplies with her aunt, retired teaching assistant Maria Ambrosio of Huntington.

This should be a simple question that any kindergarten child can answer.

But Ambrosio hesitates, through no fault of her own.

On a mission to complete back-to-school shopping lists in Long Island school districts, parents head to the classroom supplies section of local stores, often carrying their printed lists. As you’ll soon see, their task is not as simple as it sounds.

According to Deloitte’s annual back-to-school survey of 1,200 U.S. parents of children in kindergarten through 12th grade, families plan to spend an average of $586 per child on back-to-school shopping this year, essentially the same as last year, just $11 less. That can include school supplies, clothing, shoes, backpacks and technology needs. “In short, it’s a busy time for parents,” the Deloitte survey said.

The “nerve-wracking” search

“Orange?” Ambrosio answers, not quite sure.

The signage on the shelves at Huntington Station Target is red.

“Do I understand it because it says ‘red’ on it, even though it’s red-orange?” asks Conte, 38, a high school art teacher. She doesn’t know if there’s a specific reason the folder on her son’s shopping list has to be red – is red for math? Or for reading? Will the teacher say, “Take out your red folder?” She puts it on her pile.

“Nerve-wracking,” says 63-year-old Ambrosio about shopping for school supplies.

At the Walmart in Farmingdale, 10-year-old Ekamjot Singh of Bethpage has taken on the challenge of completing his school list of 31 items. He has the items saved on his phone and is getting his whole family to help him by sending them out to look for what he needs.

“We have to run to this aisle, to that aisle,” says Ekamjot. “Did you bring the ruler?” he asks his brother Karanpreet, 13, as he returns to their shopping cart base, which is guarded by their father, Kulwinder Singh. Ekamjot’s tip: Multiple cell phones; everyone should have one to communicate.

“Teamwork,” confirms his mother, Kulwinder Kaur, 35, who works as a babysitter.

LATEX-FREE SCISSORS?

What makes shopping more difficult than it first seems is that back-to-school lists don’t simply ask for a “box of crayons” and then require parents to select one. Specific quantity and size requirements help schools make sure all children have what they need, but these specifics can create headaches for shopping parents.

For example, a typical fourth-grade list from a district in Nassau County says scissors must be latex-free. How is a shopper supposed to know if the handle of the scissors is plastic or latex? It doesn’t say on the packaging. The notebook must be black marbled and wide-ruled — that is, line spacing is 11/32 inches, as opposed to the 9/32-inch spacing of a college notebook. Pens must be blue and erasable so children learning to write can correct their mistakes. Index cards must be lined and white, which makes you wonder if the choices are slim: unlined white, colored, or another store?

SOME SHOPPING TIPS

There may be more efficient ways to tackle this back-to-school supplies list task. Some parents are staying home and ordering from Amazon, says Carly Meyer, 34, of Syosset, who is shopping for her son, Liam, 4, who will start kindergarten in her district.

Karen Campos, 27, of Huntington Station, bought the lists for her daughter Emily, who is entering sixth grade, and her son Matthias, 6, who is entering second grade, not only in the store but also online. “I just looked for deals,” she says. She estimates she spent more than $100 on the children’s backpacks and lunches she bought at a store alone, and about $180 on the shopping lists in total.

Shopping for school supplies online is no joke, though—filling out a list on Amazon can cause problems, too. For example, if you check off “Duct Tape, Invisible, with Dispenser, ¾” x 650” that means you need to buy a pack of six for $11.15. If you buy just the one roll you need for $4.23, it won’t be the size the teacher wants: it’s ½” x 800”. Does a 1/4” difference in tape width matter? You can’t ask anyone that.

Other parents compile their lists on local retailers’ websites and then pick them up in store.

In some Long Island districts, school parent associations assemble a box of all the items and send them home to families over the summer – Meyer says she paid $100 for her daughter Hannah, now in first grade, to avoid the stress of school shopping. She would have done the same for her preschool-aged son, but the school didn’t offer it to him. “I think most people appreciate the convenience. They don’t even have to go to the store,” she says.

The downside to these options is that the child is not involved in choosing the materials. When they are, it can increase anticipation for the upcoming school year, says Meyer, who also works as a language arts teacher for sixth-graders in Plainview. “As teachers, we want the kids to participate. I remember being so excited about the new Crayola markers.”

However, not everyone is on board with the idea of ​​getting the kids involved. The thought of taking her sons Jayden (12, entering 8th grade) and Yaniel (10, entering 5th grade) shopping makes Ginette Lopez shudder. If you take them, you’ll end up “buying more of what they want than what they really need,” says Lopez, 32, of Copiague. Not a good idea if you’re on a budget, she says.

Shannon Dingwerth, 39, of West Babylon, says she tries to be grateful that her daughter is only in fifth grade. “Then when she gets to middle school, it’s a whole different story,” she says. “It’s about her friends, what they like, what they don’t like, what they wear. ‘Mommy, why did you get blue? I wanted green.’ When kids are older, they’re more picky,” she says as she and her daughter Gianna put clothes in the shopping cart for their final year of elementary school.

Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting, and fun things to do with kids on Long Island. She was a contributing editor at Newsday and shared the 1997 Pulitzer Prize with the Newsday staff for their coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.