We're thrilled to kick off the 2026–2027 school year with an episode that couldn't be more timely. Your students just lived it by shopping for new school supplies, but they may not have given much thought to what all that spending adds up to (spoiler: a record-breaking amount in the BILLIONS).

Families are spending a record high on back-to-school shopping this year, even as worries about the economy hit their highest level since 2020. It's important to understand where all that money is going, how the savviest shoppers stretch their dollars, and how students might turn savings into early investments. Check out this first episode below, called FinCap Friday: Back-to-School Money.

Click here to access the Kahoot quiz and discussion prompt. If you're short on time, try our simplified No Tech version containing embedded questions right in the slide deck.

New to FinCap Friday? It's NGPF's weekly current events series that connects what's happening in the news to the personal finance concepts you're teaching in your classroom. Each episode runs just a few minutes, comes with a ready-to-go Kahoot quiz, and requires little to no prep! Many teachers build a Friday routine around the series, since new episodes drop every Friday.

Browse the full episode library and sign up via NGPF's email list to get new episodes delivered to your inbox every week.

About the Author

Yanely Espinal

Born and raised by Dominican, immigrant parents in Brooklyn, Yanely is a proud product of NYC public schools. She graduated from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in 2007 before going on to receive her bachelor's degree at Brown University in 2011. As a Teach For America corps member, Yanely taught third and fourth grade in Canarsie, Brooklyn. She received her master's degree from Relay Graduate School of Education in 2013. She spends her spare time making YouTube videos about personal finance on her channel, MissBeHelpful. Yanely also loves to dance, sew, paint, listen to podcasts, and babysit her 10 nieces and nephews!