Summer 2020

Student Parent Success Initiative (SPSI) Update

Statement on the Student Parent Success Initiative's Commitment to Racial and Economic Justice

The Student Parent Success Initiative at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) mourns and condemns the murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony Dade, Elijah Mcclain, and the many others who have lost their lives to police violence and racial hatred. A third of Black undergraduate students are parents and 40 percent of Black women in college are mothers. Promoting student parents’ educational success and achieving equity for all historically marginalized students requires recognizing and combatting the harm caused by the structural racism that is built into the U.S. education system. Through its research, the Student Parent Success Initiative stands with IWPR in its commitment to working to build a more equitable, inclusive system so that student parents of color and their children have access to the opportunities for social and economic mobility that stem from earning a higher education.

New IWPR Research and Resources

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

Launch of the SwiftStudent Tool

Other Research and Resources

Fifteen Rise Prize winners awarded $1.55 Million to Advance Innovative Solutions for Student Parents in Higher Education

Imaginable Futures, a venture of The Omidyar Group; the Lumina Foundation; leading partner organizations including IWPR; and seven prominent judges announced the 15 winners of the Rise Prize, awarding $1.55 million in combined prizes to the most innovative ideas for supporting the postsecondary success of student parents. Winners range from early-stage pilots to mature solutions across for-profit and nonprofit organizations, as well as higher education institutions. A report detailing the Rise Prize applicants, finalists, and winners and how they address the systematic barriers of student parents will be published this fall.

National Student-Parent Survey Results and Recommendations: Uncovering the Student-Parent Experience and Its Impact on College Success

Generation Hope released a new report describing the results of a national survey of student parents. The survey, reflecting responses from 259 student parents at 140+ institutions, attempts to provide insight into student parents’ higher education experiences. The results identify gaps for student parents in campus culture, policies, physical space and student services. The report also shares recommendations based on these findings to help colleges and universities increase college completion rates of parenting students.

Parenting While in College: Basic Needs Insecurity Among Students with Children

A new #RealCollege Report from the Hope Center highlights the basic needs challenges student parents face, including housing insecurity, food insecurity, and difficulty obtaining child care. The survey was fielded to 23,000 parenting students at 171 two-year institutions and 56 four-year institutions questions about their basic needs insecurity, their mental health, and their need for child care. Results show that 53 percent of parenting students were food insecure in the prior 30 days, 68 percent of parenting students were housing insecure in the previous year, and 17 percent of parenting students were homeless in the previous year. The vast majority of survey respondents report that they would benefit from full-time child care, about one in five parenting students is paying $200 or more per week for child care, and among those who use child care, nearly two thirds say that it is unaffordable.

Equity in Design for HSS: Increasing Success for Student Mothers at Community Colleges

Achieving the Dream has released four briefs that examine the support needs of different groups of community college students, including one that focuses on student mothers at community colleges. The briefs focus on the importance of providing single mother students with holistic supports that meet their specific needs.

Family Friendly Campus Toolkit: Using Data to Improve Outcomes

The Program Evaluation and Research Group at Endicott College has released a revised version of its Family Friendly Campus Toolkit. The new version includes a workbook, PowerPoint, fact sheet, and implementation profiles to help campus advocates learn more about parenting students, collect data on student parent outcomes and supports, and make evidence-based plans to improve supports for student parents campus-wide.

STUDENT PARENTS AND COVID 19

COVID Relief for Higher Ed has to Mean Serious — and Long Overdue — Support for Student Parents

A blog post from Lumina Foundation’s strategy officer for finance and federal policy, Wayne Taliaferro, and Lumina Foundation’s policy intern, Muhammad Kara, elevates the unique issues student parents and their families face, while discussing how state and federal policy in response to the COVID-19 crisis offer an opportunity for change. 

Resources During COVID-19: Supporting Single Mother Learners + Other High-need Students

Education Design Lab developed a list of immediate relief resources that institutional leaders can use to improve support for single parent learners and other high-need students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Working with Student Parents during COVID-19

Dr. Larissa M. Mercado-Lopez, Associate Professor, Women’s Studies at California State University, Fresno shares insight, resources, and recommendations to support student parents during the COVID-19 crisis at the institutional level. Recommendations include modifying attendance requirements, offering asynchronous classes, implementing flexible due dates, and helping student families access and connect with resources.

POLICY UPDATES

Sign-On Letter in Support of Increased Funding for CCAMPIS

Fifty organizations, including national think tanks, campus child care centers, and foundations, support increasing funding for the Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools (CCAMPIS) program to $200 million in the Fiscal Year 2021 budget—the amount needed to provide child care support to approximately 2.5 percent of Pell-eligible student parents of children ages 0-5. The CCAMPIS program is the only federal program dedicated solely to providing child care assistance for students in postsecondary settings, and it will play an increasingly important role in light of the economic fallout caused by COVID-19. The letter was sent to Representatives Nita Lowey, Kay Granger, Rosa DeLauro, and Tom Cole, and Senators Richard Shelby, Patrick Leahy, Roy Blunt, and Patty Murray.

The Child Care is Essential Act

The Child Care is Essential Act would provide $50 billion in funding to states to offer grants directly to child care providers to stabilize the child care sector and support providers to safely reopen and operate after the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds would be administered through the existing Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) lead agency of each state, tribe or territory and would be accessible to any licensed, regulated, or registered child care provider, even if had not received CCDBG funding in the past. The bill was introduced in the House by Representative DeLauro on May 27. It was introduced by Senators Murray, Smith, Warren, Casey, and Gillibrand in the Senate a week later. Additional co-sponsors are still signing on and advocacy for the bill is on-going.

STUDENT PARENTS IN THE NEWS

COVID-19 Crisis and Student Parents

USI’s Childcare Center to Remain Closed Permanently Due to Coronavirus, 44 News, June 22, 2020

Closure of college-run child care blindsides Chittenden County parents, WCAX3, June 16, 2020

College students raising kids were in crisis before coronavirus. Lockdown made it worse, NBC News, June 8, 2020

Some KCC students getting their share of $1 million, WTVB, June 5, 2020

UVM Campus Children’s School closes, VTDigger, June 1, 2020

Regional: College Students Fear Pandemic Will Derail Graduation, New Poll Shows, SF Gate, June 1, 2020

How Workforce Credentials Can Become More Accessible After COVID-19, Diverse Education, May 20, 2020

A call for ideas to help student parents succeed during and after COVID-19, EducationDrive, May 6, 2020

Child-care aid on the way for low-income Missouri families who lost jobs in pandemic, St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 6, 2020

Students with children struggle to balance course work, caregiving amid COVID-19 closures, The Varsity, May 4, 2020

A new reality for student parents: Teaching their children’s classes while taking their own, Cal Matters, April 29, 2020

College students need economic support beyond the coronavirus | Opinion, The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 28, 2020

UWO Children’s Learning and Care Center continues to support families during COVID-19, UWO Campus Life, April 27, 2020

A Double Whammy for Student Parents, Inside Higher Ed, March 31, 2020

About the Student Parent Success initiative

The Student Parent Success Initiative (SPSI), a project of the Institute for Women's Policy Research, is designed to improve supports and services for student parents seeking postsecondary education. SPSI serves to initiate new research, raise awareness on the need for student parent supports, and foster communication and collaboration among advocates, policymakers, educators, and practitioners. Contact us at [email protected]

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