{"id":266007,"date":"2026-08-15T17:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T17:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/266007\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T17:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T17:58:08","slug":"philly-students-get-12000-free-backpacks-before-school-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/266007\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly students get 12,000 free backpacks before school starts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wd3ati7lk30az4e8.png\" alt=\"Ring the Bell Bus tour gives Philadelphia students 12,000 free backpacks ahead of school year\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-892ef6a8=\"\"\/>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wd3ati7lk30az4e8.png\" alt=\"Ring the Bell Bus tour gives Philadelphia students 12,000 free backpacks ahead of school year\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"vod-poster-image\" data-v-5a75adc3=\"\"\/>    <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">PHILADELPHIA &#8211; Students across Philadelphia are getting ready to head back to class Aug. 24, and thousands of families received some extra help with school supplies during a district event in Northeast Philadelphia.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTXF\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The School District of Philadelphia and its donors have distributed 12,000 backpacks filled with school supplies during the past few weeks.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The backpacks included spiral notebooks, folders, pens, pencils, rulers and erasers.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The event marked the final stop of the district\u2019s Ring the Bell Bus tour.<\/p>\n<p> What families said <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Some families arrived hours early to make sure their children could get supplies before the school year begins.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;It touches my heart to see that they\u2019re giving back to the community and helping the people that really can\u2019t afford it,&#8221; grandmother Renee Goodman said. &#8220;Everything went up, so it helps out a lot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Jerry Chan of Northeast Philadelphia said the supplies make a difference for families facing higher prices.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;It\u2019s hard. I know everything, the price is going up, so it\u2019s helpful,&#8221; Chan said.<\/p>\n<p> What the district said <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Superintendent Tony Watlington said the event reflected a community-wide effort to start the year strong.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;So we are a village, and the village is here today to kick off a fantastic school year together,&#8221; Watlington said.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Adam Northam of the School District of Philadelphia said district staff had spent August preparing families for the 2026-27 school year.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;We\u2019ve been out all of August to get prepared, and we really hope that the families feel supported as we work to get ready for the 2026-27 school year,&#8221; Northam said.<\/p>\n<p> Students head back to class <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">For some students, the return to school brings mixed emotions.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;I\u2019m excited but also sad because I don\u2019t want to leave my friends,&#8221; sixth grader India Swain said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: This article was written using reporting from FOX 29\u2019s Ellen Kolodziej and information from the School District of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox29.com\/tag\/us\/pa\/philadelphia\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Philadelphia<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA &#8211; Students across Philadelphia are getting ready to head back to class Aug. 24, and thousands of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[139,539,69,71,70,593],"class_list":["post-266007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-news","tag-pa","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}