Washington ? The Treasury Department began mailing out checks worth up to $400 per child to more than 25 million middle-income households Friday, a summertime windfall from tax cuts enacted in May.

Jodi Mendoza, 38, of Portland, Ore., said she planned to use at least some of the money to buy school clothes and supplies for her three children.

“We’ll probably also put some of the money away for their college,” Mendoza said.

At the plant that prints and mails the checks, President Bush visited with other families Thursday who said they planned to spend their money on school supplies, tuition and uniforms, thus injecting some energy into a slowly recovering economy.

“First of all, purchasing school supplies means the school supply manufacturer or school supply salesman has got a little extra business,” Bush said. “But also, one of the things that’s important in our work force is for people to continually upgrade their education, so that they can be more productive and find a better job that pays better pay.”

The checks that hit the mail beginning Friday represent an advance refund on the child tax credit increased to $1,000 this year. The first batch of roughly 8.6 million checks will return a total of $4.4 billion to taxpayers. Two more batches will be sent in August.

The checks will be sent to those who qualified for the credit in 2002. Families who had their first child in 2003 will have to wait until next spring to apply for the credit and claim their refund. Taxpayers expecting a check need not contact the Internal Revenue Service in order to get their advance payments.

“As long as we have a good mailing address, taxpayers don’t have to do anything to get their checks,” said IRS commissioner Mark Everson.

The benefit starts to phase out for married couples who make more than $110,000 and single parents who earn more than $75,000.