ESCONDIDO -- When 14-year-old Lauren Crosby wants to tell her friend something during school hours, there's no neatly folded note exchanged in a hallway. There's an alert on her friend's cell phone.

Cell phones, flash drives, graphing calculators, iPods and even laptops are a few of the technological gadgets that high school students said they wouldn't leave home without these days.

"It's a lot easier to text or call," Lauren said, adding that she sends about thirty messages a day. "I always have my cell phone."

She said she depends on her phone to recount stories from English, find out what classes her friends are headed to and decide where they want to meet up for lunch.

"Technology has certainly changed the game," said Neville Saner, a World History teacher at Poway High School, who has worked in education for 36 years. "The kids grow up with it today, so they are very familiar with it."

Throughout the school day, Saner said, students use technology for communication, calculations and classroom compositions.

Such luxuries have become a necessity for student consumers and parents who want to see their kids get the best education they can, said Shawn Roner, director of the Escondido Charter High School's traditional program.

According to a recent survey on back-to-school shopping by the National Retail Federation, spending will reach $18.4 billion this year nationwide, up nearly $1.2 billion from last year, and being driven, at least in part, by electronics.

The average family with two or more children between the ages of 6 and 17 is expected to spend $563.49 a year on back-to-school merchandise, nearly a quarter of which -- $129.24 -- goes to electronics items such as desktop and laptop computers, calculators and educational software.

Melissa Martin, a first-grade teacher in Escondido and the parent of a freshman at San Pasqual High School, said her family is shuffling financial resources toward technology as it becomes a bigger part of kids' education.

Her son, 14-year-old Scott Martin, carries a cell phone and scientific calculator with him to school, and may soon be adding a graphing calculator -- which runs about $80. Scott is also looking to buy an Apple laptop with the money he earned working part time over the summer, she said.

"My son has a computer at home, but its' three years old and it's just frightfully slow," Martin said. "For the level of success you want for you child, it's essential for them to have a computer -- and one that runs well."

Roner, a top administrator at Escondido Charter High, stresses the point that laptops and even calculators are not required. They are luxuries -- and if need can be checked out by the school -- and will not guarantee a better grade.

During lunch last week, Scott said he couldn't imagine coming to school without some technology.

While the bulk of his backpack is filled with traditional school supplies like textbooks, three-ring binders, paper, pens, pencils and gym clothes, the small technological items overshadow the others in resourcefulness and what he depends on the most, he said.

His scientific calculator, which is used for complicated math and science equations, comes in handy throughout the day, he said. His cell phone, although off or silent most of the school day to avoid having it confiscated, is always there so he can contact his parents if necessary and retrieve things left at home, he said.

"It really has become essential for us, for him to have a phone," Martin said.

Still, Scott's more reserved cell phone use during school hours is probably the exception.

Between sending text messages, taking pictures and playing games, educators said last week, that cell phones are constantly being used, passed around and even taken away for inappropriate use. School policies typically allow for cell phones to be on campus, as long as they are kept off during class hours and kept out of sight.

"They have become sophisticated toys," Saner said. "Kids enjoy them, they have fun with them and they mess around with them."

Calculators offer many of the same distractions in the way of games. What is different about the cell phones, Roner said, is how easily, and many times discreetly, students can send notes and messages to each other.

For teachers, he said, that means constantly monitoring use of such devices. They also are working more and more to integrate other types of technology into the classroom, in a way that enhances students education, and keeps students focused on the classroom material.

Some of the ways that they are doing that is by offering students the choice of doing their classroom presentation in digital PowerPoint slide shows, rather than on poster boards, sending homework reminders through e-mail and taking students online as a class to watch videos and converse with researchers thousands of miles away.

"(Technology) is just a part of their life," Roner said. "That's a big difference in school. And I think administrators and teachers have realized how important that is."

Contact staff writer Shayna Chabner at (760) 740-5416 or schabner@nctimes.com.