How can low-income students build a sense of community?

In my experience, what helped me get through college and high school was connecting and finding other first-generation students. There we shared resources, time and community. If you truly want to make an impact on low income students needs it's helpful to encourage them to join a group with others with similar qualities to help equip them with the right language and tools to advocate for themselves.

Shouldn’t we change the way schools are structured to meet the needs of the community rather than follow old inadequate patterns?

This is so incredibly important to our low income students. Especially our minorities. There are a lot of history months/weeks/days. At the very least, schools could take advantage of these and allow families to come share their culture with students. It is important that students are given opportunities to showcase their pride in their culture.

I believe this is very important. And may be the best way to do it - these students feel marginalized already and the best way to make them feel they belong is to give them a chance to show what they can do/contribute/share uniquely to the larger group!

I feel that this should be at the top of the article. Students can't take care of everything else unless their mental health is in check. Providing resources to support the mental health of our students is absolutely crucial if we want to see improvement across other areas. I have done "Mental Health Mondays" in my classroom, and it was a hit. It's always been one thing my students thank me for at the end of the year.

I think the most important step is having a curriculum that is responsive to the diverse backgrounds of learners. We encourage teachers to convert curriculum contents and goals to meet students' needs which is burdensome to some extent. Part of this burden can be relieved with a responsive curriculum.

I think this might be a slippery slope, especially. It needs to be organic. If somebody outside of the population creates a space for another population, that they're not a part of you've, for lack of a better word, just outed them. They're now seen as different. because of that they're in need of something others may or may not be. How/why would that info be accesseessible, if not self disclosed? Not a criticism just a different perspective. growing up as a poor kid, my strife was how can I not look and act poor. The kids that need to find each other will. I always did. Maybe the space is for the those that have to be taught that financial status does not equate to social status.