Expand Support for Parenting Students by Defending and Strengthening Public Benefits
Blog Post

midjourney
Feb. 13, 2025
Parenting students, who make up roughly one in five undergraduates, need more financial support to secure basic needs for themselves and their families while enrolled in college. They often face higher non-tuition costs than their non-parenting peers, and are more likely to drop out. Addressing both tuition and non-tuition costs is key in helping parenting students persist and graduate.
In 2023, 13.5 percent of U.S. households reported food insecurity, meaning they experienced reduced quality, variety, or intake of food. While that alone should concern us all, food insecurity is truly at crisis levels for college students, especially those who are single parents. A recent analysis of National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey data found that 22.6 percent of undergraduate students report food insecurity and a staggering 37.3 percent of single parent students experience low or very low food security.
Since food and housing insecurity adversely impact degree completion, public benefits are one strategy to help parenting students stay enrolled and ultimately graduate with a credential. But despite the need, low-income student parents can face challenges in accessing public benefits due to state decisions about eligibility requirements that can make it difficult for students to qualify for programs or meet work requirements while enrolled in school. Coupled with underfunding of key programs like the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBDG), policy decisions that limit the ability of postsecondary students to participate in these programs can make it difficult for low income student parents to access them.
Even worse, programs that ensure children and their parents have food on the table and can see a doctor if they get sick are at risk. Programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Affordable Care Act, and Medicaid are all included in a “menu” of potential spending cuts that Republican lawmakers are considering. In a political environment with a focus on supposed government efficiency, we must remain clearheaded and ready to defend and strengthen anti-poverty programs. Restricting those living in poverty from accessing key programs is not efficient; it’s cruel and shortsighted.
Helping student parents complete their degrees can help them earn more and provide economic security for their families. There’s also a compelling and pragmatic case for state and federal policymakers to support parenting students along the path to degree completion; those who graduate are likely to pay more in state and federal taxes and cost less in public benefits program spending in the long run.
A 2019 Institute for Women’s Policy Research study estimated the economic costs and benefits of degree completion for single mothers and the impact at national and state levels. They found that on average, nationally, single mothers who graduate with an associate degree could earn $256,000 more over their lifetimes than they would have with a high school diploma alone. They’d save more than $25,000 over a lifetime in public benefit costs, while paying over $70,000 more in taxes.
The same study found a single mother who earns a bachelor’s degree could save an estimated $40,000 over a lifetime in public assistance spending, and contribute $220,000 more in taxes, while earning $625,000 more over their lifetime. Investing in people striving to support their families pays off. Check out IWPR’s State Factsheets for estimated economic benefits for single mothers and degree attainment in your state.
People with a postsecondary degree are considerably less likely to enroll in public benefit programs over their lifetime, so leveraging public benefits to support degree attainment in the short term is a smart strategy. While colleges and universities address student basic needs insecurity through a patchwork of food pantries, community partnerships, and sometimes connecting students to public benefits, public benefit programs often have yet to catch up with the reality that students, especially parenting students, need these programs to help them succeed in college.
For example, the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) provides child care subsidies for low-income families, but postsecondary students can face difficulties accessing the program. States sometimes impose rules on college students, including time limits that aren’t realistic for completing a degree, or work requirements that aren’t sustainable while enrolled in school and parenting. On top of these challenges, the program serves only around 13 percent of eligible children nationally due to underfunding, compounding access issues for families headed by a student parent.
Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) help low- and very low-income families pay rent, with most participating families paying 30 percent of their adjusted monthly income and the voucher covering the rest. The program suffers from massive underfunding, however, with only about one in four eligible households receiving assistance. The problem is even more dire in some states; for example, only 4.6 percent of eligible households in Florida receive HCVs.
As it stands, many things have to go right in a complicated system for parenting students to access public benefits that help meet their families’ needs. Defending and strengthening public benefits is a gain for students, their families, and taxpayers. There are three steps state and federal policymakers can take now to improve access to important programs for parenting students.
- Defend against efforts to gut public benefit programs.
For the student parent population, public benefits are not only a strategy to support basic needs through degree completion, they’re a means to earn more in the long term. Short-term benefits access can lead to a workforce that pays more in taxes and uses fewer public benefits. Access to public benefit programs is linked to reduced poverty, improved health outcomes, improved academic performance for children in school, reduced health disparities by race, and more.
2. Enact public benefit programs so that student parents can access them.
Even with federally funded programs, states often have significant decision-making authority in designing and administering public benefit programs. States should design programs with student parents in mind. For example, postsecondary education should count as a standalone activity for CCDF eligibility, without additional work requirements. Unnecessary time limits that aren’t realistic for parents working toward degrees and could put them at greater risk of stopping out due to lack of child care should be removed.
School attendance should count as a qualifying work activity for receipt of cash assistance through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Restrictive time limits that jeopardize student parents in meeting their basic needs and completing their degrees should be removed.
States should also try to prioritize student parents and design entry points that help them access benefit programs while enrolled in school. Georgia, for example, designated student parents a priority population for its CCDF-funded program, Childcare and Parent Services, and is placing consultants on three Technical College System of Georgia campuses in a pilot experiment to help them enroll in CAPS and connect to wraparound services.
3. Reauthorize and expand the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) grants.
CCAMPIS provides federal grants to colleges and universities to subsidize child care for low-income parenting students. Recently introduced legislation would increase funding for this federal program to $500 million annually, to increase the number of colleges that can offer child care on campus. While CCDF is, depending on the state, accessible to student parents, underfunding impacts states’ ability to serve income-eligible families. Expanding CCAMPIS will allow more colleges to step in to support child care needs for part of their student parent population.
Championing access to programs that help parenting students succeed and stay enrolled in college is common sense policy. Making sure parenting students can thrive and have the resources needed to complete their degrees is a win for them, their families, and society at large.