The Student Parent Success team at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research is excited to announce the release of our newest report, Child Care Access for Student Parents in Oregon: Challenges and Opportunities for Improving Educational and Economic Success. The report describes the landscape of child care for college students with children in Oregon and addresses the challenges and opportunities for improving their child care access. It draws on a review of the literature, expert interviews, and national and state data analysis, in addition to a survey of campus child care directors. It also provides findings and recommendations for how Oregon can promote student parents’ postsecondary success through improved access to quality, affordable care.

IWPR's research found that:

Securing and affording child care is challenging for the nearly 42,000 student parents in Oregon, especially for student parent families in rural areas, those in need of infant/toddler care, and those who would prefer home-based care.
The number of Oregon institutions with campus-based child care has declined from a high of 16 in 2011 to 12 in 2019. Community colleges, where the largest share of student parents is enrolled nationally, have experienced the steepest decline.
Oregon campus child care centers provide vital services to student parent families, but are not enough to meet their full need; many campus child care centers maintain wait lists and center directors feel strongly that greater investment in campus child care is needed to better meet students’ need for affordable child care.
While Oregon has made a number of investments in early learning, in addition to providing one of the only—if inadequate—state-funded child care grants to college students in the country, more is needed to help students with children access the care they need to balance school, work, and family. Oregon should expand existing early learning programs to intentionally serve student parents and support campus child care services, remove barriers to accessing child care assistance, and collect data on college students’ parental status and educational outcomes.

About the Student Parent Success initiative

The Student Parent Success Initiative (SPSI), a project of the Institute for Women's Policy Research, conducts research and analysis to improve supports and services for student parents and promote their success in 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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