February 12, 2025
This is the third blog in a three-part blog series that spotlights bright spots among Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) that have worked to address the needs and challenges of student parents of infants and toddlers through innovative initiatives, as featured in our new policy brief, Supporting Student Parents and their Young Children in California’s Institutions of Higher Education.
At California Polytechnic University, Pomona (CPP), a group of faculty, staff, and students across campus formed the Parenting Student Support Team to lead efforts in strengthening support for this population of students. The team plays an important role in uplifting parenting student needs and fostering a family-friendly environment, and plays an active role in helping the campus smoothly transition when policies and administrative changes occur. Additionally, the team has a large role in updating the university’s dedicated website which openly welcomes parenting students and displays information from a variety of on- and off-campus resources. Together with the Parenting Broncos Club, the Parenting Student Support Team celebrated CPP’s first National Student Parent Month this September by hosting weekly events, including a family-friendly campus resource carnival.
A family-friendly environment on campus can be seen at the library with its Bronco Family Space, which was specifically designed for those who need to use library services while caring for a younger family member. With features like interactive and age-appropriate toys, a children’s book collection, rentable children’s iPads, and accessible changing tables, the Bronco Family Space is an enriching environment for children whenever parents or caregivers visit the library. This space is also used for monthly “Connect and Play” events which welcome parenting students and their young children to a space that emphasizes literacy and social play.
The University’s Early Childhood Studies (ECS) Department has also made concerted efforts to create a welcoming environment for parenting students through its family-friendly department policy that all faculty include in their syllabi. The policy acknowledges the persistence and determination of parenting students that is strengthened by their aspirations for the children. By adopting a faculty-supported, department-wide policy that explicitly welcomes pregnant and parenting students, student parents are granted accommodations like assignment extensions and excused absences, with the option to bring children to class during child care gaps and
unrestricted access to in-person classes for their breastfeeding babies.
Dr. Giselle Navarro-Cruz, an Associate Professor in the ECS Department and a previous student parent herself, shares: “Parenting students have shared the importance of feeling seen, welcomed, and supported. In response, our department has implemented a policy that explicitly affirms our commitment to parenting students. This policy communicates that parenting students are not only welcomed but are also provided with the necessary support to thrive in their academic pursuits.”
CPP has a nationally accredited Children’s Center that provides subsidized child care from ages 18 months to five years for students, faculty, alumni, and community members.