Despite growing awareness of the unique circumstances parenting students often face—any child care gap, car repair, medical bill, or other seemingly minor events remain major threats to their educational pursuits.

It’s a stark paradox that more than 4 million student parents confront every day in higher education. As learners, parents demonstrate higher levels of engagement and academic preparedness, but they complete college at a much lower rate than their peers without children.

When Institutions Prioritize Parenting Students

TSC’s Toolkit of Promising Practices for Colleges and Universities is the second publication of a series that started with the Supporting America’s Student Parents policy brief, which makes the case for why federal and state policymakers should prioritize the parenting student population. To better understand emerging and effective practices, this toolkit combines a review of existing national research with qualitative insights from experts, including institutional leaders, program administrators, policy advocates, and practitioners who work directly with college students with children. These conversations coincided with a review of research and implementation guidance from organizations such as the Aspen Institute, Generation Hope, and other national groups that partner with postsecondary institutions to advance innovations supporting student parents.

This toolkit is designed to support colleges and universities. A framework for action informed by institutional practices, case studies and expert interviews provides proven strategies that improve access, persistence, and success for student parents across diverse institutional contexts. The colleges profiled show that with leadership commitment, student voice, cross-campus collaboration, and appropriate investment, institutions create environments where student parents don’t just survive, they thrive.

TOOLKIT

FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION

We aren’t doing things FOR them, but WITH them. Student parents are the experts. Lean into what student parents tell you. Serving student parents is a universal design principle. If we serve student parents well, it will help other students, too.

— Catron Allred, director of the Early Childhood Center of Excellence at Santa Fe Community College