It’s 5:30 a.m. Time to get up for school. You have to walk the quarter mile to the end of your gravel “holler” to meet the school bus. You catch one bus at 6:15 a.m and ride it to an elementary school, where you catch another bus that finally takes you to your high school. School starts at 8 a.m., but you’ve been on a bus for over an hour before you arrive at 7:30 a.m. You didn’t have much food for dinner last night, so you’re counting the minutes until you can grab a hot breakfast from the school cafeteria. You’re looking forward to lunch, too. This will be your last hot meal of the day. You’ll probably just snack around for dinner. After school, you get back on the bus and follow the same route home, transferring buses again, and arriving home around 5 p.m. Nearly a 12-hour day from start to finish.

This is the daily routine for many students living in poverty in our rural communities. They face many barriers to education that have real impacts on their education and, ultimately, their long-term opportunities. While our public schools cannot eliminate every obstacle rural poverty creates, targeted strategies and strong community partnerships can help bridge critical gaps for students and families. 

Headshot of Jessica Helton

Jessica Helton is a teacher at Louisa East Elementary School (Lawrence County) and a Class of 2026 GoTeachKY Ambassador.

When Geography Becomes a Barrier

Poverty, of course, exists everywhere. It exists within cities, in the suburbs, and in our many rural communities in Kentucky. But for families living in remote communities, poverty can look and feel different. Lower population densities mean that everything from grocery stores to doctors’ offices can be 30 minutes or more away. What should be simple tasks – buying groceries, picking up a prescription, making an appointment with a doctor – become time-consuming and expensive challenges.

Access to reliable transportation is one of the biggest hurdles rural families face. Transportation is expensive. Vehicle maintenance, taxes, licensing and registration fees, fuel costs, and insurance are often prohibitive costs to owning a vehicle for many rural families. Also unique to the rural landscape is the limited access to resources like city utilities, broadband internet, childcare, and accessible job opportunities. With very few commercial buildings in rural areas, most jobs are far away and again require reliable transportation to access. Rural public transportation is almost non-existent. There are no public bus routes or access to ride-sharing services in many of these areas.

These conditions translate to real, measurable impacts in the classroom. Largely because of these barriers, chronic absenteeism, lack of focus due to hunger or lack of sleep, and high dropout rates are all common in students in this demographic.

What Rural Districts are Doing to Help

Our rural districts have some great resources already in place to help. The backbone of these resources are Kentucky’s Family Resource and Youth Services Centers (FRYSCs). These state-funded centers help provide so much assistance to not only our students, but also their families when needed. They are sometimes more accessible than other forms of help because they are embedded in our schools.

FRYSCs can:

  • Send home non-perishable food to help fill in gaps in nutrition over weekends and school breaks.
  • Offer clothing, shoes, and hygiene items as needed.
  • Help families access government assistance programs for help with things like utilities and housing.
  • Connect families to resources such as food pantries and faith-based outreach ministries. 
  • Help connect students with mental health professionals and counseling support.

Best Practices for Supporting Students in Rural Poverty

Although schools cannot solve this problem alone, they can provide support and create environments that help all students succeed. Some of the most effective strategies include:

  1. Meet Students’ Basic Needs First
    • Continue access to food for students while at school.
    • Expand access to weekend backpack programs to reduce food insecurity.
    • Eliminate barriers to hygiene and clothing programs so that students feel comfortable using them.
  2. Minimize Transportation Barriers
    • Offer flexibility in attendance policies when transportation challenges arise.
    • Coordinate community assistance programs that may assist in the form of gas cards or assistance in vehicle repairs when needed.
    • Offer flexible virtual options for students with broadband access at home.
  3. Strengthen Relationships with Families
    • Maintain consistent communication between schools and families using phone calls, social media tools, home visits, and text-based communication.
    • Train all staff on how poverty can impact families and how to tactfully refer them to receive school resources.
  4. Focus on Whole-Child Supports
    • Include local health departments, extension offices, virtual health services, and dental services in schools for students when possible.
    • Use student attendance, behavior, and academic performance data to identify problems and intervene early.

It’s Not All Bad

While our rural communities face many challenges, there are distinct benefits to growing up in a place where “everybody knows your name.” These communities are some of the most supportive and generous places to live. Small schools and tight-knit neighborhoods mean staff frequently know when something has happened in a child’s home life long before the student ever mentions it. When tragedy strikes or a family falls on hard times, these communities support one another and show compassion in ways that just aren’t possible in bigger cities.

With the right support and resources, we can help these students to grow and succeed and overcome many of the barriers they face. Our communities have the heart, resilience, and commitment, and by working together, we can ensure every child has the chance to build the future they deserve.

Jessica Helton is a teacher at Louisa East Elementary School (Lawrence County) and a Class of 2026 GoTeachKY Ambassador. For more details on the ambassador program and how to become an educator, visit the GoTeachKY website.