One back to school item I would recommend parents getting their child is a USB flash drive. If your child is old enough that they are writing papers for school then a flash drive is a great computer accessory for them to have.
A USB flash drive is essentially a very small hard drive that you child can connect to your home computer, or a school computer through the computers USB port. The drive does not have to be installed and works under the same principle as a floppy disk. When your child finishes working on their school paper they can select the USB flash drive as where they would like to save the paper rather than to the hard drive of the computer they are using.
A flash drive makes it possible for paper to be worked on at school or a friend’s house, and then finished up at home. If your child makes a habit of saving their finished papers to the flash drive and keeping that drive with them, then it can also save them for situations where they accidentally left their printed paper at home. The flash drive could easily be connected to a computer in the school library and printed out rather than having to receive a grade deduction for late work.
There are a variety of different flash drives in tons of different sizes. For a child I would recommend getting a smaller sized drive (they have no need for a larger one) and getting one that is designed to connect to a keychain. The keychain connection will make the drive easier to keep up with and less likely to get lost in the shuffle. Here are a few great USB Flash Drives that can be purchased rather inexpensively: