CCAMPIS Isn’t Duplicative, It’s Essential. The Admin’s Transfer Threatens Student Parents.

Last month, the Trump administration announced its plan to transfer the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program from the Department of Education (ED) to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) via an Interagency Agreement (IAA), a major shift that would reshape the nation’s only federal child care program designed specifically for student parents. Although the administration frames this move as an effort to “streamline” operations, the agreement represents a significant departure from congressional intent and risks destabilizing CCAMPIS and the supports that student parents rely on.

The CCAMPIS program is the only federal program that helps low-income student parents access child care while pursuing higher education. Colleges can apply for CCAMPIS funding up to one percent of their prior-year Pell Grant utilization. By design, CCAMPIS grants subsidize child care for low-income parenting students, enabling them to stay enrolled and make progress toward completing their education.

Nearly one in five undergraduate students, over three million, are raising children. A lack of affordable child care remains one of the most significant barriers to attainment for these students, especially single mothers. Weakening ED and moving CCAMPIS to HHS would only make college attainment more difficult for parenting students.

The decline in campus-based child care further underscores the need for CCAMPIS: in 2023, only 264 colleges received CCAMPIS funding, down from 327 in 2021, with average awards of $317,108. In 2018, $50 million in CCAMPIS funding supported an estimated 11,000 parenting students. The proposed CCAMPIS Reauthorization Act would increase funding to $500 million and would expand access to an estimated 100,000 more parenting students. In reality, student parents are likely to take on more debt than non-parenting students, in part due to a lack of access to affordable child care, underscoring the urgency of sustained and expanded investment in CCAMPIS.

As the only federal program dedicated to child care access for student parents, CCAMPIS plays a critical role in supporting educational attainment. Transferring the program away from ED risks weakening – or ultimately eliminating – vital support for student parents.

This transfer is not simply a matter of paperwork—it fundamentally shifts CCAMPIS into an agency without the infrastructure to administer a higher education program. The IAA moved CCAMPIS from ED’s Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), in HHS. The administration argues that since ACF oversees the Head Start program, it is better positioned to administer CCAMPIS. However, HHS, particularly ACF, has experienced significant staffing reductions due to reductions in force (RIFs) carried out under the administration.

Moving a program that is fundamentally designed to support postsecondary education outcomes into a weakened department will further harm CCAMPIS and the support it provides to parenting students. ACF’s reduced capacity undermines its ability to absorb new programs, especially one with complex grant administration requirements. The transfer increases the risk of delayed competitions, unclear guidance, inconsistent oversight, and reduced data reporting quality to the public.

Authorized under the Higher Education Act of 1965, CCAMPIS grants were first funded in the fiscal year (FY) 1999 following the enactment of the Higher Education Act Amendments of 1998. The Higher Education Act (HEA) is landmark legislation that governs the administration of federal higher education programs with the goal to ensure that everyone has access to higher education regardless of income or zip code.

The HEA exists to strengthen the educational resources of colleges and provide financial assistance to students – CCAMPIS fits squarely within this mission. The decision to move CCAMPIS to HHS is just one of the Trump administration’s continued attempts to undermine and ultimately eliminate ED, as stated in Project 2025.

Unlike the child care programs administered by HHS, such as Head Start, CCAMPIS relies on ED’s student aid infrastructure, including FAFSA data, Pell Grant eligibility, and deep institutional partnerships, to determine eligibility and support student parents. HHS does not possess the higher education expertise or institutional knowledge needed to effectively implement CCAMPIS.

The legality of transferring a congressionally authorized higher education program without congressional approval has been widely questioned. The IAA between ED and HHS attempts to navigate this concern by splitting responsibilities: ED retains sixteen statutory duties while delegating seven administrative tasks to HHS “in coordination with and subject to ED supervision.” This arrangement adds complexity and contradicts the administration’s claim that the transfer will streamline bureaucracy.

The administration’s fact sheet claims the CCAMPIS transfer is an efficiency measure while also calling the program “unaffordable and duplicative.” The President’s earlier FY 2026 budget request echoes this framing, stating that CCAMPIS should be eliminated because subsidizing child care for student parents is “unaffordable and duplicative,” and that institutions or the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) can meet the need instead.

CCDBG, the federal program that provides child care subsidies to low-income families, reaches only about 14 percent of eligible children nationwide due to lack of federal investment. Additionally, in many states, CCDBG eligibility rules—such as prioritizing work over education, restricting the types or duration of allowable education or training, limiting the counting of travel or study hours, and long waitlists—make it difficult for student parents to qualify for or maintain subsidies.

CCAMPIS is designed to fill these gaps. It supports both campus-based child care programs and off-campus care, providing institutions with the flexibility to meet student parents where they are. This flexibility, aligned with the unique needs of student parents, is fundamentally different from CCDBG’s design.

Framing CCAMPIS as “unaffordable and duplicative” overlooks the barriers student parents face and misconstrues the program’s role. Eliminating or transferring the program would reduce, rather than expand, the limited child care options available to students with low incomes.

This IAA is also highly disruptive for colleges, student parents, and the supportive systems they rely on to care for their children. For the past two consecutive years, ED has not opened a new CCAMPIS grant competition, and there has been limited communication from the department explaining why. Instead, in the summer of 2025, ED only continued existing grants and discontinued those that did not align with the administration's priorities. Staffing shortages from widespread layoffs have further constrained ED’s capacity. Although the fact sheet states that “states and grantees should not expect to experience programmatic disruptions due to the partnership,” the move of the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education to the Department of Labor that happened earlier this year shows otherwise. ED nearly missed a deadline for FY 2025, which would have disrupted funding streams.

Adding HHS to this already unstable environment will deepen uncertainty. Parenting students, who already juggle immense responsibilities with limited time, resources, and support, cannot afford further unpredictable access to child care. Campus centers, likewise, cannot reliably plan staffing or slots with disruptions to the grant program. Student parents deserve stable, reliable child care, but these disruptions jeopardize their ability to stay enrolled and complete their programs.

This move also comes after the passage of H.R. 1, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which cuts funding to vital public benefit programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid that parenting students rely on. Ultimately, reduced access to both child care and basic needs programs will make college completion even more difficult for student parents.

Congress has a critical role in ensuring that CCAMPIS continues to serve student parents effectively. Lawmakers should reaffirm that CCAMPIS must remain at ED, consistent with statutory responsibilities in the Higher Education Act.

As Congress finalizes FY 2026 appropriations, lawmakers should:

• continue funding CCAMPIS at stable or increased levels and reject the administration’s unsupported claim that the program is unaffordable or duplicative.
• require ED to conduct a FY 2026 CCAMPIS grant competition so student parents don’t continue to lose access to critical child care.

If the administration is truly committed to improving child care access for student parents, it should focus on improving CCAMPIS rather than transferring the program to another agency. Evidence-informed recommendations include:

• Increasing program funding to support more student parents and reduce long waitlists;
• Simplifying the application and reporting process, which many institutions, especially community colleges, find burdensome and duplicative;
• Expanding eligibility to providers beyond those with national accreditation, including high-quality state-licensed programs;
• Allowing CCAMPIS funds to support facility development or renovation, enabling institutions to expand child care capacity;
• Creating a formal campus advisory group to advise ED on program implementation, technical assistance, and ensure CCAMPIS is responsive to institutional and student needs;
• Supporting flexible child care models, including family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) care – options that student parents rely on for evenings, weekends, and in child care deserts; and
• Publishing de-identified, disaggregated CCAMPIS performance data to better understand who the program serves and where gaps persist.

Learn more by exploring New America’s Policy Agenda on Improving Child Care Access for Student Parents and IWPR’s Federal Policy Solutions to Advance Gender Equity Supporting Student Parents.

These improvements would strengthen the impact of CCAMPIS and support student parents’ educational success, without undermining the program. The IAA may offer the appearance of action, but it does nothing to improve how CCAMPIS functions; instead, it distracts from the concrete changes that would truly strengthen the program for student parents.

Student parents deserve real solutions, not bureaucratic reshuffling. Keeping CCAMPIS anchored at ED is essential to ensuring they can access the stable, affordable child care they need to complete their education.