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This means ‘creating policies that welcome children in appropriate campus spaces, and making sure students know where to go for help when life happens,’ Austin Community College director says
Nearly one fifth of college students are parents. And universities are hunting for ways to support this sizable population.
The statistic comes from a 2025 report by Trellis Strategies, a research firm focused on higher education. Allyson Cornett, the director of research, told The College Fix about some of the difficulties parenting students encounter in a recent interview.
“Parenting students often have limited time and may be balancing work, caregiving responsibilities, and coursework simultaneously,” Cornett said. Yet, she said, they “are also highly motivated.”
According to unpublished 2025 survey data that Trellis provided to The Fix, over half of parenting students spend at least 40 hours a week caretaking.
Additionally, 73% of student parents hold down a job while taking classes and for over half of that group, their weekly work hours reach 40 and beyond. Almost 90% of student parents value financially supporting their families while taking classes, though the group is more likely to face financial challenges than students without dependents, according to the research.
Cornett told The Fix that almost two thirds of student parents who have jobs emphasize the employee part of their identity over the student part. However, over 75% of student parents perceive college as a sound financial investment that will lead to a higher quality of life.
Angelica Cancino de Sandoval is the senior director of basic needs and advocacy at Austin Community College. A recent project conducted by the Texas college combined financial assistance with community support to help 100-plus local parenting students.
“When parenting students don’t complete college, it’s rarely because they aren’t capable academically. More often, it’s because of challenges outside the classroom—financial stress, a sick child, lack of childcare, transportation issues, or other unexpected life events,” Cancino de Sandoval told The Fix in a recent interview.
Offering support can help these families overcome barriers that otherwise may have kept them from finishing school, she said.
Despite the additional struggles they face, “parenting students are often some of the most determined, hardworking, and resilient students on our campuses,” the spokeswoman said.
The interest in this demographic is growing among policymakers, schools, and researchers — but Cornett at Trellis said there is still room for improvement.
While “the quality and quantity of available data have improved considerably in recent years,” she told The Fix that “many colleges and universities do not routinely identify parenting students in their administrative data systems, making it difficult to understand the size of this population, track outcomes, or evaluate the effectiveness of support programs.”
Cancino de Sandoval agreed that the demographic often gets overlooked.
“Parenting students are also a much larger—and often hidden—student population than many people realize. By investing in them, colleges are not only improving student success and completion, but they’re also strengthening families and creating lasting economic mobility for future generations,” she said.
At her own institution in Austin, Texas, roughly 20% of the student population is parents.
“If we want to create a true sense of belonging, we have to start thinking differently about what parenting students need to be successful. Their experience in college looks different than that of a traditional student, and our policies, services, and campus culture should reflect that,” Cancino de Sandoval said.
One of the main problems student parents face is unawareness of the resources available to them.
Trellis found that almost 75% of student parents who support dependents are unaware they can request more financial aid for housing their family.
“Many of these students are pursuing credentials to improve economic opportunities for themselves and their families. Ensuring they are aware of available resources and have the opportunity to succeed aligns with the broader mission of helping students achieve their educational goals,” Cornett told The Fix.
As for what colleges and universities are doing to address the need, there are a number of examples.
Central Texas College in Killeen is one. This summer, the school announced a new $250,000 grant to collect data in order to gain a better understanding of the needs of its parenting students.
“We want to provide the resources so that those students, their time to complete, maybe we can reduce it and it can become more effective, more better used. But in order to do that, we need to know what they need from us, we’ve got to know who they are, and we’ve got to express to them how much we care about them …” Julie Starkey, the dean of student success and persistence, commented to KWKT FOX44.
Why the investment? Cornett pointed to legislation in Texas that requires public colleges and universities to collect research on parenting students. The 2023 legislation also requires them to employ a liaison to connect parenting students to information and resources about public benefits, medical services, child care, transportation, and more.
But Texas isn’t alone in expanding these resources.
Another instance is San Francisco State University, which opened a study room last spring specifically for parenting families on campus. It has toys, stuffed animals, children’s books, crayons and coloring pages, a white board and markers, and games, along with adult and children-sized chairs and tables.
Spokesperson David Knutson gave The Fix an update via email recently, saying, “During the semester the room gets used daily, over the summer it’s only a few times per week.”
As another example, last year, Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio opened a new maternity house near campus to provide a safe, supportive environment for students who are expecting and new mothers, The Fix previously reported.
Meanwhile, at Austin Community College in Texas, Cancino de Sandoval continues to advocate for new ways to help parenting students and their children.
“Supporting parenting students means creating family-friendly campuses. It means offering childcare on or near campus, having food pantries that include diapers, wipes, formula, and other children’s essentials, creating policies that welcome children in appropriate campus spaces, and making sure students know where to go for help when life happens,” Cancino de Sandoval said.
“When we remove barriers outside the classroom, we give parenting students a better opportunity to focus on learning and reaching their goals,” she told The Fix.
“Colleges need to start looking at parenting students through a more holistic lens. When you support a parenting student, you’re not just helping one student, you are changing the trajectory of an entire family system. That impact can last for generations,” she said.
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