Growing up, the thought of attending college rarely crossed my mind. Neither my parents nor my seven older siblings had pursued higher education, and I didn’t know anyone in my community who did either. But becoming a mother reshaped my aspirations; I was determined to secure a better future for my child, though I had no clear path to begin this journey.
One night, when my daughter was two years old, an infomercial from a for-profit college caught my eye. The advertisement felt like staring in a mirror; it featured a young mother who dreamed of earning her degree. Intrigued, I considered enrolling but soon recognized the institution’s predatory nature, later becoming the subject of lawsuits over its misleading advertising and dismal job placement rates.
Disheartened, I thought my college dreams were dashed until I happened to drive past Los Angeles Valley College. A swing set outside the building hinted at on-site childcare. My daughter and I promptly enrolled and started college the same day. Even with the free childcare services, I wasn’t prepared for how challenging and isolating the college experience would be as a student parent.
My second pregnancy only intensified those feelings. After my water broke during a math class, I would pump breast milk in a restroom and carry it around all day in a cooler. I felt like giving up.
Fortunately, I was soon introduced to the college’s Family Resource Center, which offered not only a dedicated lactation room and refrigerator but also parenting groups where my daughter could come with me and mental health services. This support allowed me to transition from a striving single mother to a college graduate and higher education professional.
Sadly, my success story remains somewhat of an anomaly in a system where nearly four million U.S. college students are parents, including about 1.7 million single mothers. That’s, in part, because so few institutions even recognize that students like me exist.
Only six states actively require data on student parents.
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This oversight leaves countless learners vulnerable to unscrupulous for-profit institutions, never pursuing higher education at all, or leaving college with nothing to show for their efforts but debt. There is a critical need for states and institutions to enhance support for students who are raising children—and that starts with collecting data on the student parents they serve.
For student-parents, higher education is a crucial investment that can significantly alter their socioeconomic trajectory. Single mothers who earn an associate degree, for example, see about $256,000 more in lifetime earnings. And the impact extends beyond individual learners. For every dollar the federal government invests in childcare for single-mother students, research shows a projected return of 430 percent in increased tax contributions and reduced public assistance.
Unfortunately, the reality is that few parents realize this potential return on their college investments. Just 37 percent of student-parents, and only 11 percent of single mothers, obtain a degree or credential within six years.
Even as the need for support has grown, resources to help student parents seem to be dwindling. From 2004 to 2019, the proportion of public colleges and universities offering childcare services decreased from 59 percent to 45 percent. Fewer than 100 of the nation’s 3,700 community and technical college campuses host on-site Head Start programs. Family resource centers like the one that was so essential to my success are even more rare.
Many institutions lack a fundamental understanding of the needs of student-parents because they barely know who these learners are. There is no federal mandate to collect data on parenting status, and only a handful of states have such requirements. Even within those states, the criteria for defining a student-parent varies significantly. One review of data collection efforts by the Urban Institute found that no two definitions were the same.
This is starting to change, albeit slowly. States like California, Illinois, Minnesota, Oregon, and Texas have all now adopted laws requiring institutions to gather data on the parenting status of their students. This information will help colleges, states, and organizations tailor policies and programming—such as providing affordable childcare, offering priority registration, and hiring dedicated teams of student success coaches and advisors—to enhance the success rates of student-parents.
Higher education needs to ensure the futures of our student-parents do not hinge on the random chance of driving past a swing set. That starts with a simple yet vital step: identifying these students, recognizing their potential, and understanding their needs through collecting and analyzing data on their parental status.
By gathering this information, institutions can build a robust foundation that enables student-parents to navigate the complexities of higher education—and steer their families toward a brighter future.
