MOST not all but most places require you to purchase your "personal gear" fins, mask, snorkle, gloves, and booties. You can rent the rest if it is not included in the class. Sports Chalet may advertise a buck and a half for the class but there are lots of extras. The class iteself with the boat trips, books, blah blah blah will run around $500. Booties and gloves can rage from $15 to 30 for low to mid range quality. Masks vary from $25 to over a hundred for a good "frameless" mask. Do not purchase masks or even look at masks due to color, brand, or price. A mask is probably the most important purchase you can make. You do not want to spend all 5 of your check out dives doing nothing but clearing your mask because it continously leaks! Save money other places if needed to get a mask that properly fits!
Beware trying to save a few bucks by buying used gear online. I rather...."frugal" customer came into the dive shop the other day and couldn't believe how expensive a reg set is (even the least expensive $250) "I can buy it online from ebay for $50" We warned him that he doesn't know what quality he is buying but he didn't listen. He ordered a used set of regs and then brought them in for us to service. The manufacturer is still in business (one of the largest still) but no longer makes servcie kits the POS he bought. I instructed him on the lifetime warantee and free parts for life with our least expensive reg (still high quality) and he finally decided he would be ahead of the game and just bought the new reg....
If your going to buy used, make sure it is face to face and have a stipulation that your going to have it checked out by a pro service tech, if there problems and it cant be serviced make sure you can get your money back.