National Student Parent Month Round-Up
September was National Student Parent Month! In honor of this important awareness month and student parents across California who headed back to the classroom, we kicked off a digital campaign focused on uplifting the unique challenges faced by this population of parents in pursuing their higher education while navigating their role as parents.
Dig into student parent data and testimonials from our campaign to learn more about them and their experiences:
In California, there are an estimated 486,454 parenting students—with 181,182 of those students being single mothers.* On top of the challenges of pursuing higher education, this population of student parents face many unique challenges as they navigate academics and their role as parents. Even more so, if they are single parents. In a listening session Early Edge California hosted this year for student parents, one parent shared, “My biggest challenge of being a student and as well being a parent at the same time is balancing my academic responsibilities with parenting, this has been so demanding, I mean I have to make sure my kid is fine and okay before anything else.”
Students with preschool-aged children have about 50% fewer hours left for things like studying and sleeping than their nonparent classmates.* In our listening session with student parents, one parent shared, “Juggling class schedules, studying, assignments, child care, and personal needs can be overwhelming. [I have] difficulty attending all classes due to inflexible child care or sick children. [And I have] limited time for sleep and self-care.”
40% of student parents report feeling disconnected and 20% feel unwelcome on their campuses.* Early Edge spoke to a student parent who shared, “I wish that people would be more accommodating and understanding of my needs and situation. I need more support from my professors. I feel excluded from activities because I have children.”
According to a recent study from the California Alliance for Student Parent Success, “Most (55%) student parents have at least one child under six years old, who tends to need child care more than school-aged children.” As one student parent explained to Early Edge: “Finding child care is a nightmare. The cost is brutal, eating into my limited funds and leaving me with few options. Waitlists are long, and my ever-changing schedule makes it even harder. Evening classes clash with child care center hours, forcing me to scramble for last-minute babysitting. The constant worry about child care adds tons of stress to an already overloaded plate.”
Having access to child care and Early Learning programs is pivotal for the success of student parents, especially those with young children of infants and toddlers. A policy agenda for student parents by California Competes highlights that, “Student parents who had access to campus child care had a 21% increase in degree attainment over student parents who did not access campus care.”
We asked student parents what it would mean to them to obtain their degree. Here is what they shared:
