PARIS, Ill. (WAWV/WTWO) – Many Illinois residents are looking to find some financial relief as the new school year approaches.

As a part of the Illinois Family Relief Plan, sales tax for clothing, school supplies, and all other back-to-school items will be reduced for a ten-day window.

As of August 5 sales tax for items related to back to school will be reduced from 6.25% to 1.25%.

Superintendent of Paris Union School District Jeremy Larson said with inflation on the rise, he believes this is the perfect time to provide relief.

“When we think about public education and the need for every kid to get a good high-quality education, you have to have the resources going into that first day of school,” Larson said. “I just think it’s a great time of year to have that tax holiday. Buying school supplies is very expensive especially when you have multiple children,” Larson said. “My daughter alone last year spent about 200 dollars on school supplies so if you take that three that’s about 600 dollars.”

Paris High School Teacher and mom of three, Shelby Smith, said the start of a new school year can be costly. She said there are often costs that come up in the classroom as well and believes the tax cut will help many of her students.

“It will be huge for all of our students because a lot of them do struggle to get their school supplies and come to school sometimes unprepared,” Smith said. “We as teachers feel like we need to fill that void.”

P.E. High School teacher Kelli Furgeson said she plans to stock up on some extra supplies this year during the ten-day tax holiday.

“I always try to keep an extra stock of binders in health class for some of the kids that don’t have one,” Furgeson said. “I also plan to pick up Kleenex, I feel like I go through a box a day of Kleenex.”

Larson said to provide additional relief on top of the tax cut, the school district will host a back-to-school bash at the school providing free haircuts and school supplies on August 1.

The school supply tax holiday will end on August 14.