What exactly is your kid going to be using the laptop for? Is this school a typical Canvas/Instructure/Google Suite setup? If so, then a MacBook to simply run multiple Safari tabs to do homework will be absolute overkill. A Chromebook with i3 or i5 processor, 1080p screen, and 8GB RAM will be plenty and significantly cheaper. What I truly miss with Chromebook is that they used to be so lightweight, but I now have trouble finding any under 3.5lbs.

Miss Swede was heavy into the AP STEM track, and a refurbished $350 Chromebook with an 8th-gen i3 processor and 8GB RAM was totally fine for her four years (I did have to spend $40 in January to replace the battery--which was a fun 20 minute project). Her only complaint was that it was pretty heavy. Now that's she's off to an engineering program for college, I got her a 2.8lb, 14" 1080p laptop with 12th-gen i5 processor, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SDD laptop for $434 off eBay (refurbished directly from manufacturer with 2-year warranty). If I can get 3 years out of it, I will be ecstatic, and I will gladly foot the bill for a 15th-gen laptop for her senior year.