(Blackwallsttimes) – Every year, as students head back to school, communities come together to provide backpacks, notebooks, and other supplies. Those efforts matter. They help ease the financial pressure many struggling families face and ensure children have certain tools they need to walk into the classroom ready to learn. More than that, they send a powerful message to young people: their success is worth investing in, and their needs matter.
These efforts alone, however, cannot address the many unique and largely unseen challenges kids growing up in under-resourced communities carry into the classroom. According to publicly available data, roughly one in seven K-12 students live in poverty, with disproportionately higher rates among Black and Hispanic children. This year, as the affordability crisis skyrockets, the numbers are likely greater. In the Bronx borough of New York City, which contains the poorest congressional district in the country and where I run a community-based foundation, the numbers are greater even in years that are more stable economically. Nearly 35% of school-age children in the Bronx live at or below the poverty line.
Research has repeatedly shown that factors outside school walls play a significant role in educational outcomes. Students do their best when they have stable housing, consistent access to nutritious food, stable homes, safe places to go after school, good health, and well-rounded opportunities to learn and grow beyond the classroom.
I grew up in the Bronx myself. In that community – and hundreds like it across the country – nonprofits like the one I lead show what it truly takes to help children facing economic hardship start the school year strong. We support mentoring, youth development, family support services, workforce programs, and educational enrichment, filling gaps schools were never designed to address on their own. What many of these organizations lack is not commitment or expertise. It is the sustained investment necessary to meet growing demand.
For example, it’s shocking in today’s tech-heavy world, but, on average, one in eight kids grow up without access to a computer at home, and after-school computer programs and supplies in many public schools in underserved communities have faced enormous cuts. That means there’s a digital divide that separates the tech-savvy majority from those who are analog in a digital world – and who will graduate automatically at risk of being left out of the economy permanently, with the doors to opportunity shut.
Our foundation has started funding organizations that partner with tech companies that, already this year, have helped us give away thousands of computers to families that didn’t have them. This fall, we hope to triple the number. It’s a dent, but it matters. It means filling an opportunity gap at the start of a new year.
Food insecurity is, distressingly, rising. Over the last two weeks alone, we have received three times the typical number of calls seeking urgent funding from local food banks and food pantries. Slashing programs may look like fiscal responsibility to far-away politicians. Still, here it means kids showing up at school hungry, unprepared to learn and excel and subject to illness, absences and permanent disadvantages. Federal cuts have decimated the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), so resources for school-based free and reduced-price lunch programs and funding for community nutrition efforts have slowed to a crawl. Families, including parents of schoolkids, bear the brunt. This means that community organizations must do more with less.
A family’s uncertain economic status is the main driver of housing insecurity: according to the most recently available data, more than 154,000 New York City public school students experienced homelessness during the 2024–25 school year, a record number representing nearly 15% of all students, pointing to a constant crisis in underserved neighborhoods mirrored everywhere. Things aren’t getting better. In fact, the crisis is being compounded by the rising cost of living and newly imposed cuts to federally funded housing vouchers. That means that at the start of this school year, more families are living in substandard, often overcrowded housing or facing the risk of losing their homes altogether and being forced to couch surf or enter the shelter system. A student’s housing status and conditions directly affect outcomes. Kids need permanence and stability to learn. That’s why, this school year, as more families experience housing emergencies, we are focused on partnering with housing organizations that specifically support youth and offer as many resources as possible.
Taken together, we know firsthand that students do not leave their life circumstances at the schoolhouse door. They bring them into the classroom.
Back-to-school season is an opportunity to think bigger about what students need to succeed. We should ask broader questions. Are families connected to the resources they need year-round? Do students have access to mentors, enrichment opportunities, and safe spaces beyond the classroom? Are community organizations equipped to meet the needs of the families they serve?
A backpack or a new laptop helps a schoolchild start the journey. Only a strong community helps that child finish it and is the difference between advancement and stagnation. This year, it will take even more to start millions of kids back to school the right way.