Kids On Campus:

Supporting student parents by bringing more Head Start classrooms to community college campuses

The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) and the National Head Start Association (NHSA) are partnering in a five-year project to increase the number of Head Start programs co-located on community college campuses. The joint project offers a practical, commonsense approach to solving challenges in both sectors.

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Community & Technical College Campuses with On-Site Head Start Centers

The map above indicates existing co-located community college and Head Start partnerships and will be updated as new partnerships are established. This was produced by the National League of Cities' Civic Mapping Initiative in partnership with ACCT and NHSA. Primary data sources are (1) the Civic Mapping Initiative's CASL (Campus and Satellite Location) dataset for community & technical colleges and (2) Head Start location data available from the Department of Health and Human Services. In cases where multiple Head Start centers are located at the same location, the first location in the dataset is reported for each map marker. Map created in February 2024 using data from late 2023.

Media Mentions and Press Resources

Media and Press

Raising Up Student Parents

Raising Up is a five-part docuseries investigating the barriers student parents face when pursuing higher education and the innovative leaders creating generational impact.

WPR | Head Start offering child care at colleges

Nearly 4 million undergraduate students are raising children, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. A new initiative through Head Start is bringing affordable child care centers to campuses across the nation, including in Wisconsin. The “Kids on Campus” director joins us.

NPR | The new kids on campus? Toddlers, courtesy of Head Start

San Antonio College has a whole building designed for pupils who are much younger than the typical college student.

Nestled between modern academic buildings, the Head Start center provides free, federally funded child care programs designed to promote school readiness for infants, toddlers and preschoolers from low-income families.

Inside Higher Ed | ‘Matchmaking’ Community Colleges and Head Start

Community colleges serve high numbers of parenting students, but too few institutions have campus childcare centers, or sufficient spots to meet demand, to help these students persist and graduate.

Inside Higher Ed | Community Colleges to Get More Head Start Centers

The Association of Community College Trustees and the National Head Start Association are partnering to bring more Head Start centers to community college campuses.

The Chronicle of Higher Education | Campus Child Care Has Become Less Available. A New Partnerships Aims to Change That.

The number of on-campus child-care centers has declined over the last 10 years, with the steepest declines taking place in the community-college sector.

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