The aim of this essay was to create an understanding of teachers strategies to respond to children in economic hardship in school and if these children can participate on equal terms in school. To examine this, we chose to do semi-structured interviews which is a qualitative method. Eight teachers were interviewed from four different elementary schools. In our interviews, we found that all the schools both had elements of inclusion and exclusion, which can result in both equal and unequal terms for participation in school. We also found that the school with the most students in economic hardship had the most inclusive strategies. Another thing we discovered was that the Swedish school law is ambiguous, because it says that school should be free of charge but at the same time accepts that the school takes out an insignificant cost from the students. Because there is no definition of the insignificant cost and the policy about school related costs are vague, it gave the teacher some discretion to define how much and at which time the insignificant cost could be relevant. The teachers’ could use their discretion to support the children who lived in economic hardship, by reducing the risk for their economic situation to be visible to others and enable them to participate on more equal terms, for example by having extra snacks or money with them during school