April 15, 2020

Student Parent Success Initiative Statement on Student Parents and the COVID-19 Pandemic

In these unprecedented times, the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) is committed to communicating and addressing the unique challenges student parents face during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, IWPR is releasing a new fact sheet that articulates the challenges to student parents as a result of COVID-19 and makes recommendations for how to provide them with needed support. The Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation, in partnership with IWPR, is also launching SwiftStudent, a new digital tool to guide college students through the process of requesting additional financial aid. These resources are intended to ensure that student parents' circumstances and needs are prioritized in responses to the pandemic and that they can easily access financial support that can help them meet their immediate needs.

Student Parents in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Heightened Need & the Imperative for Strengthened Support

Student parents sit at the crosshairs of educational and economic vulnerability. They face higher rates of poverty, take out more debt, and spend more time working and caring for their children than their peers without children. For many, “financial aid just [isn't] enough to fix life’s little emergencies.”

Now, with spiking unemployment and the closure of schools and child care, the demands on their finances, their time, and their emotional energy are greater than ever. For the nearly 4 million undergraduate students with children, COVID-19 has not only jeopardized their families’ health and economic well-being, it has also threatened their ability to remain on a pathway to earning a college credential.

Higher education is known to bring a multitude of benefits to graduates and their children—and this is especially true for single mothers. Ensuring student parents have the support they need to keep their families safe and stable during the COVID-19 pandemic and throughout the recovery is essential to their ability to continue on their educational journeys and improve their family’s long-run economic security.

SwiftStudent

SwiftStudent is a new, free digital tool to help college students needing to adjust their financial aid. As the country contends with the COVID-19 pandemic, college students and their families everywhere face mounting challenges. SwiftStudent guides college students through the formal process of requesting additional financial aid when their economic circumstances have changed.

SwiftStudent is available to all students receiving federal aid, free to use, and does not share or sell personal data. SwiftStudent guides users through the appeal process relating to numerous special circumstances where a student may be eligible for an adjustment to their financial aid, such as recent job loss of a parent, a medical crisis, and loss of childcare or housing. This includes economic hardships and challenges that occur as a result of COVID-19. SwiftStudent can help students file an appeal to communicate a job loss or significant change in financial situation, or request support dependent/child care or disability-related expenses.

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