What You Need to Know About Parenting Students This September
Every September, National Student Parent Month is an opportunity to recognize a group of learners who are too often overlooked: the nearly one in five undergraduate students who are also raising children. At Kids on Campus, we see these students every day — balancing coursework, careers, and caregiving, and doing it with a determination that deserves visibility. This month, we’re sharing their story.
Here’s what you need to know:
They’re a bigger part of the student body than most people realize.
Parenting students make up a substantial share of who’s sitting in community college classrooms, with parenting students representing close to a fifth of all undergraduate students nationwide. Nearly 74% of all parenting students and one in ten community college students are mothers, many of them balancing school with full-time work and caregiving responsibilities at the same time.
They bring real strengths to campuses.
Parenting students are some of the most driven people on campus. Balancing coursework, employment, and the demands of raising a family takes discipline, time management, and resilience — skills that carry directly into the classroom and, later, into the workforce. Colleges that recognize and invest in this population aren’t just supporting individual students — they’re strengthening the pipeline of skilled, determined talent their communities depend on.
Investing in parenting students pays off for entire families and their communities.
When parenting students have access to affordable, high-quality early learning for their kids, they’re more likely to stay enrolled and complete their degree. The benefits don’t stop with one generation, either. Mothers who reenroll and complete a community college degree see meaningful gains in their earnings — recent estimates put the increase at roughly $8,900 per year. That kind of economic mobility ripples to their children, their households, and their local economies.
Access to early learning is often the deciding factor.
For many parenting students, the difference between finishing a degree or dropping out isn’t motivation, but access. Reliable, affordable early learning is frequently the biggest barrier standing between a parenting student and their diploma. That’s the gap Kids on Campus, a joint initiative of the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) and the National Head Start Association (NHSA), was designed to close, by connecting community colleges with Head Start programs to bring high-quality early learning directly onto campuses.
Parenting students deserve more support and visibility.
Parenting students are already showing up to class, to work, and for their kids. Ensuring the systems around them show up, too, means community colleges, Head Start programs, and policymakers need to work together to expand access to on-campus early learning. This September, join us in recognizing parenting students and in building the partnerships that help them, and their families, thrive.
Learn more about Kids on Campus partnerships and read our latest impact report, Learning Without Limits, or visit our FAQ page to see how your community college or Head Start program can get involved.
