Tapping the Talent of Student Parents
A Playbook for Postsecondary Leaders
The Playbook
Since 2018, Ascend’s Postsecondary Success for Parents (PSP) Initiative has built a foundation for a national student parent movement. Ascend aims to establish an imperative to increase attainment rates for parents in postsecondary systems through solutions that are parent-informed, have potential to scale, and will lead to high-quality learning and family well-being. In 2020, Ascend established the Postsecondary Leadership Circle (Leadership Circle), a group of 20 college and university leaders who advise the PSP Initiative. Members of the Leadership Circle are spearheading innovative practices and family-friendly strategies on their campuses that advance postsecondary pathways for student parents across the country.
Each of the institutions developed an action plan to support student parents on their campuses. In their action plans, all Leadership Circle cohort members committed to collecting baseline data on student parents on campus; assessing institutional supports; identifying and tracking needs; building new or expanded institutional supports; and advocating for student parents more broadly.
This playbook showcases Leadership Circle members’ successes and lessons learned in implementing their action plans in order to highlight potential paths forward for other institutions. Discover key takeaways below and download and read the full Playbook.
The PRomising Practices
This playbook identifies five promising strategies that support the unique needs of student parents that emerged in interviews with Leadership Circle participants. The five strategies can be implemented individually or in combination, depending where an institution is in the work and the opportunities for and needs of student parents on their campus.
- Promising
Practice 1 - Promising
Practice 2 - Promising
Practice 3 - Promising
Practice 4 - Promising
Practice 5 - Scaffolding
Promising Practice 1
Identify, Collect, and Analyze Data on Student Parents to Understand Who They Are and What Would Support Their Success.
As reflected in the interviews with the Leadership Circle and in the Family Friendly Campus Toolkit, it is important to recognize student parents as a population with unique barriers and experiences. However, most institutions do not currently track the parenting status of their students. Thus, an essential first step is to identify the student parents on campus. Student parent identification generally occurs in collaboration with institutional research (IR) and other offices, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches to better understand their needs. Including student parents in the data collection and analysis through focus groups, feedback on surveys, or other mechanisms can help identify effective strategies and supports.
Explore key strategies below and read the full Playbook for more details.
Key Strategy
Use student data systems or existing sources to identify student parents on campus.
Institutions have used several approaches to identify student parents: admissions data, data from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and institutional survey data. The approaches are not mutually exclusive, and using a combination can help improve identification.
Approach 1 – Admissions data. Institutions can give student parents the opportunity to disclose parental status during the admissions process. This approach may involve modifying existing data systems, such as adding a question to the application or entrance portal to allow student parents to self-identify. Bunker Hill CC and Colorado Mountain College, for example, added an optional checkbox. However, many institutions may not be able to use this approach; as noted by City Colleges of New York (CUNY), with its 25 campuses, adding a field to the system application can be difficult.
Approach 2 – FAFSA data. Institutions have also used FAFSA data and/or state financial aid application data to identify students with dependent children, which can create an initial estimate. However, not all student parents apply for financial aid, so this approach may underestimate the student parent population. At Amarillo College, about 80 percent of students apply for financial aid, so the college felt this approach would capture most student parents. But at the State College of Florida, the FAFSA completion rate is relatively low, as is true across the state of Florida, so this approach was less useful.
Approach 3 – Survey data. Institutions also have surveyed all students on campus, allowing students to self-identify as parents, or they have initially used FAFSA information to identify student parents and then surveyed the student population to find additional parents who had not applied for aid. For example, Montgomery College staff used the information they could get from the FAFSA and the Maryland State Financial Aid Application to develop and send out a student parent identification questionnaire to the entire credit student population, plus some subsets of students in workforce development and continuing education.
For all of these approaches, once student parents are identified, other student data systems within the institution, such as those in admissions, the registrar, financial aid, student services, facilities, and other campus offices, can be used to obtain data on student demographics, attendance, major, academic status, enrolled courses, financial aid receipt, the supports and services they are using, and more. In addition, institutions might consider incorporating data from external systems, such as the National Student Clearinghouse, which can help round out data on student progression, transfer, and credential completion.
Key Strategy
Engage student parents directly through surveys or focus groups to capture a fuller picture of their experiences and needs and to deepen relationships with them.
Once institutions identify student parents, it is useful to gain deeper insights from the student parents themselves using surveys, focus groups, or interviews. These tools are flexible in terms of both quantitative and qualitative data collection and can round out knowledge of student parent experiences. According to an Amarillo College student success lead, “Students will tell you what they need.”
Approach 1 – Surveys. Many institutions used surveys to better understand student parents’ experiences and perceptions. City Colleges of New York (CUNY)’s survey came out of its student parent task force and to CUNY’s surprise, had a high response rate. The survey revealed that “While financial challenges were the largest barrier to [student parents’] academic success, a good second was stress, anxiety, and depression. Childcare [was] a third runner-up.” The survey also provided space for student parents to input narrative data or request a phone call from CUNY staff. According to CUNY staff, of the 40,000 students surveyed, about 900 student parents wrote that they would like to be contacted by email; further, 35 students requested and received a phone call. Bunker Hill CC provided an incentive for survey participation, which it felt helped lead to a relatively high response rate and was received well by students.
Approach 2 – Focus groups and interviews. Focus groups and interviews with student parents can offer information on what supports they are using or need to access. Several institutions hosted focus groups for student parents to provide feedback on the challenges they face, their needs, and how the institution could help. El Paso CC, for example, counted on its TRIO program (specifically, the Student Support Services) to recruit participants for focus groups. Colorado Mountain College asked some student parents who had taken its survey to also participate in a focus group and then added several alumni to provide additional perspective. The State College of Florida noted the usefulness of the focus groups when asking students about their needs: “Sometimes they don’t realize just how much information they can provide for us. I think that’s the first step: ask them.”
Key Strategy
Analyze data in collaboration with the IR office and other stakeholders.
Institutions have used several approaches to identify student parents: admissions data, data from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and institutional survey data. The approaches are not mutually exclusive, and using a combination can help improve identification.
When analyzing the data to identify and target the specific needs of student parents, it is important to engage and build a relationship with the IR office. The IR office can help disaggregate the data across a range of important metrics (e.g., demographics, enrollment and persistence, academic standing, and use of support services), which can contextualize the findings before making new interventions or targeting existing resources. For example, parents with young children may have different needs, such as child care, than parents of older children. The IR office can also help develop dashboards that visualize the data to help internal and external audiences understand who student parents are and what they need to succeed.
For example, the Amarillo College student success lead felt the institution “probably move[d] faster than most other schools because [of] our data analytics team … [which] got on board immediately.” The college merged data from institution data systems (such as enrollment records) with FAFSA data (used to identify student parents) to create a dashboard to compare past and current student parents to non-parents. The dashboard includes a range of variables, such as age of children under 18, gender, first generation or not, race/ethnicity, income, work experience, marital status, grades, coursework, persistence, student progress measures, utilization of support services, child care used, and campus attended. Individuals from different offices at the college then came together to discuss their short-, medium-, and long-range goals.
Amarillo College’s Student Parent Data Dashboard
Bunker Hill CC plans to add “student parents” as a filter on its dashboard so this population can be incorporated into its institutional reports and other analyses. Some interesting insights have already emerged from its survey of student parents: three-quarters of the college’s student parents are first-generation college students, and student parents have higher GPAs and persistence rates than students overall. Once all of its student parents are identified, Colorado Mountain College will be able to use its data on enrollment, persistence, and completion to better understand stop-out patterns, course failures or withdrawals, and other information to target resources to where they are most needed. As the student success lead noted, “Once we had a sense of those things, we could look in and say, is this a financial thing? Is this a child care thing? Is this a time-deficit thing? Why are we losing you at these particular times, and then what can we do about it?”
Key Strategy
Use data systems to target specific and relevant information on resources and other supports to student parents.
Identifying student parents in institutional student data systems can make it easier to get them targeted information about available services. For example, Amarillo College can use its dashboard software to email materials to specific groups of student parents. Bunker Hill CC has added a question to its application for student parents to self-identify and wants to put that information into its new customer relationship management system to connect directly with student parents. The integration will offer more opportunities to target student parents with communications about resources specific to their needs. The system also can incorporate key data points into communication materials. In its upcoming recruitment plan, Bunker Hill plans to target both student parents and adult learners with specific recruitment activities, such as a student parent orientation managed by student affairs staff.
Promising Practice 2
Recognize student parent expertise as an essential part of co-creating solutions and strengthening connections on campus.
Campus environments can make student parents feel welcome and experience a sense of belonging. A number of institutional practices can help make that a reality, from including student parents in institutional or peer leadership positions to providing opportunities for student parents to connect and engage with one another. Also, institutions can use qualitative and quantitative data to help inform and contextualize student parent voices.
Explore key strategies below and read the full Playbook for more details.
Key Strategy
Include student parents on task forces or advisory groups.
Beyond hosting focus groups or issuing surveys, including student parents on task forces, advisory groups, or other convening opportunities can not only identify their needs but also what they offer to the campus community. Student parents should be included in decision-making through representation in meetings and committees and supported in advocacy roles. This can build bridges from student parents to other community stakeholders. In some cases, these students can become “champions” who can advocate for new and revised policies or services on campus.
For example, City Colleges of New York (CUNY) has a student parent task force composed primarily of student parents, with support from faculty and student services staff, and the State College of Florida’s Parents Initiative and Montgomery College’s ASCEND Parent Initiative Taskforce both include student parents. A representative from Montgomery College suggested including alumni on task forces; an student parent alumna from the college shared experiences that contributed to discussions about effective supports.
Key Strategy
Use student parents as ambassadors or peer advisors to engage other students
Student parents can also become involved in a formal role, such as leading outreach activities or becoming peer advisors and tutors for other student parents. Creating such a role can leverage student parents’ existing knowledge and campus experience. Bunker Hill CC, for example, is planning to hire student parent ambassadors to act as mentors and engage with their peers, and the college is also searching for funding to support a coordinator to manage the program and create academic coaching or advising opportunities. The college also makes sure that student parents are represented in the pool of student engagement leaders that assist with orientation during the summer.
Being part of this task force really clarified for us that… our focus on [student parents] could really be a game-changer, not just for individuals, for them, of course, but also for us as an institution when it comes to recruitment, retention, persistence, graduation.
El Paso Community College
Key Strategy
Provide opportunities for student parents to build relationships on campus.
Student parents need access to networks where they can create the social capital and skills needed to successfully navigate the path toward a postsecondary credential. Focus groups and other outreach efforts suggest that many student parents feel isolated or lonely and would like to be connected to other student parents who share their experiences. Student parents want to feel a sense of belonging and enjoy the support a community can provide.
El Paso CC’s survey of students found that student parents did not know other student parents, despite the fact that the survey also found that half of the college’s students were parents. “It was very eye-opening that when we asked students whether they knew other student parents, for the most part, they did not,” said a college representative. The college is hoping to create a student parent resource center on each campus that could help foster relationships and an advisory group of parents to guide opportunities to bring student parents together. Montgomery College established an affinity group, the student parent alliance, so that student parents could meet their peers. Colorado College also hopes to create a campus community of student parents for study groups or just moral support after surveys of student parents highlighted their desire to connect with their peers.
Promising Practice 3
Refine messaging and communications to be inclusive of and welcoming to student parents.
Institutions need to publicize all supports and policies pertinent to student parents so that they know what’s available, how to access the resources, and how to navigate both on-campus and off-campus services. Data collection efforts can complement messaging efforts by targeting student parents, contacting them to learn about their needs, matching them to resources, and promoting key facts about student parents in communication campaigns.
Explore key strategies below and read the full Playbook for more details.
Key Strategy
Put all resources in one place for easy access.
This could be a centralized virtual or in-person location. Virtual locations can include websites or other hubs that point students to available resources. In-person locations would ideally bring all services together in one building. Campus maps showing where offices or facilities are located are also helpful. Interviewees said that student parents often do not know about the services or supports that exist to help them, or they do not have the time to go to multiple or distant locations to find the resources they need. The Bunker Hill CC student success lead said, “Our student parents stated that they obviously don’t have a lot of time, and they certainly don’t want to spend the little time that they have searching our website, trying to find resources that are geared towards them. They really made a point of saying that they would like a singular space, one repository, where every resource that pertains to them resided, and they had quick access to that.” The City Colleges of New York (CUNY) student success lead noted that “The other consistent message was that student parents don’t know what the supports and services are on campus until they need them, and then it’s too late.”
Amarillo College’s Advocacy and Resource Centers (ARCs) are centralized resource centers that support student parents; the college also has a 2-1-1 website that includes a comprehensive internal and external resource guide for services that support student parents. When most students were still online only, El Paso CC created a Virtual Student Parent Resource Center to jumpstart their outreach. Montgomery College has a webpage that links student parents to existing information and resources. The college also plans to post QR codes around campus so that student parents can look up services and facilities on their cell phones.
Key Strategy
Show student parents in marketing materials and on social media.
Student parents should be able to see themselves in materials so they feel welcome and a sense of belonging. Such exposure can offer an accurate representation of the number of student parents and capture positive stories about their experiences and successes. Often, existing materials focus on traditional-aged students without children. According to the State College of Florida student success lead, “Marketing and communication is probably where we’re going to see the most growth. … We are trying to be intentional about the language that we use, making sure that we use inclusive language that lets people know that we want them to be here.” Similarly, the Montgomery College student success lead shared, “We want to reassure students through our imagery that they’re welcome, that their children are welcome.” College staff have reached out to student parents to see if they would like to be featured on social media or in other marketing materials, offering a gift basket for the family as incentive. At Amarillo College graduation ceremonies, rather than offering only headshots, the college took pictures of students with their children.
Through these strategies, institutions can reduce the “social stigma” of being a student parent. Many student success leads shared that faculty, staff, and others on campus need to see their students as parents, not just as students.
Key Strategy
Ask student parents for feedback on communications.
Focus groups or other gatherings can be used to solicit feedback on existing materials and suggest new ones. Such convenings can also be used to photograph parents with their children. Interviewees stressed the importance of providing things like child care and food at such activities. Student parents can also be involved in crafting stories for social media. For example, Montgomery College is considering setting up a special social media account for student parents, similar to what they do for their student life team and the writing and language center. Staff could then tap someone in the student parent alliance to manage the account to help ensure that information gets to student parents. Social media could feature student parent stories and direct students to the college website for student parent resources.
Promising Practice 4
Identify or create family-friendly spaces on campus where student parents can be both students and parents.
In surveys and focus groups, student parents cited a need for specific areas on campus where they can study, meet up with other parents, participate in formal programming such as parent clubs and family-friendly activities, or bring their children when needed. Providing such a space can reduce isolation among student parents. Although physical space is often limited on campuses — and policies regarding minors on campus often need to be changed — there may be ways to meet this need by being flexible and creative.
Explore key strategies below and read the full Playbook for more details.
Key Strategy
Provide physical locations on campus where parents can bring their children.
Student parents could use indoor or outdoor areas where they can study while their children participate in activities nearby. For example, El Paso CC is currently building family resource centers, and staff plan to reserve space in those centers so that “students can come in with their children and do homework together. We would have tutors available to have tutoring for the parent and then tutoring for their child and also have fun things for them to learn together,” said the student success lead. Similarly, Montgomery College wants to include space in their family resource centers so that “student parents can come and bring their children with them [and] where they can study” and tutors or other support staff could join them, the student success lead shared. Other institutions are using their tutoring centers in a similar fashion.
Montgomery College also strives to host at least one family event each semester, where parents can bring their children to campus — and not just for holidays or other special events. College staff would like to be strategic and intentional about welcoming children to campus and marketing activities and events to student parents. “Creating a new opportunity looks like working with our universal design team who’s traditionally focused on those with mobility, disability type issues, but looking at meeting student-parent needs through that universal design lens of what is beneficial for student parents is also going to serve the larger community,” the student success lead shared. Similarly, El Paso CC hosts a series called Tejano Virtual Events, which are family-friendly about topics such as how to start a garden and cooking together.
Some institutions are creating outdoor spaces that work as study areas. For example, Colorado Mountain College is creating outdoor family-friendly spaces using durable, natural materials that are easily maintained.
in the Spring
The design concept includes rocks, boulders, wood, native plants, and interesting seating areas that also invite play. The outdoor family-friendly study areas would flow into the preschool outdoor space, which would also have an abundance of natural materials.
Key Strategy
Reserve spaces for affinity groups or other student parent needs.
Colleges can help student parents develop relationships with each other by designating certain areas on campus for them to gather socially. These areas could be located in the student center, a family resource center, tutoring centers, or other facilities. According to the Amarillo College student success lead, “Our student parents told us that they wanted to meet other parents and to hang out with them.” The college created the Students Who Are Parents (SWAP) group and subsequently a SWAP group on the health science campus for nursing and allied health students. El Paso CC wants the new family resource centers to be a place for developing relationships: “We want to create those opportunities for them, for student parents to get to know each other and to form networks,” said the student success lead.
Key Strategy
Enable student parents to use spaces during days, nights, and weekends.
Several student success leads mentioned that student parents generally have time constraints, so offering flexible scheduling of family-friendly spaces and activities can be helpful. For example, some student parents might want to use spaces to study or meet up with other student parents during nights and weekends. Other student parents might preserve nights and weekends for family time, so daytime and/or virtual options would be important. Student parents may also want to access campus-based supports and services at nontraditional times. According to the State College of Florida student success lead, “Our student parents need to be heard, and they need to have options and flexibility.”
In addition, an interviewee from Amarillo explained that the college has discovered that student parents’ lives are already so full that finding time to go to a student organization meeting can be a challenge. While the organization still hosts in-person meetings, it is also creating asynchronous meetings. “[Our student parents are] using the technology that we have on the backend with our learning management system so that they can create an asynchronous meeting where you can go and meet” other student parents, said the student success lead. It is similar to a message board with controlled access so that student parents feel comfortable posting.
Promising Practice 5
Provide new, expanded, or targeted supports, services, and facilities for student parents on and off campus to increase their academic success.
Supports and services for student parents vary considerably across institutions. Some institutions have extensive networks of services that have been around for decades, while others are identifying new needs that require targeted interventions. At the same time, some supports or services require more regulation, oversight, funding, or resources than others. Moreover, the supports they are able and need to provide will look different given each institution’s unique context. As is the case for other strategies, data collection is key to understanding what services student parents need and making them aware of existing services.
Explore key strategies below and read the full Playbook for more details.
Key Strategy
Alleviate the challenges of child care for student parents.
All of the institutions interviewed said that child care is one of the top concerns for student parents. As the Amarillo College student success lead shared, “We discovered that we needed more affordable child care.” College should offer on-campus child care options that are affordable, available, and of high quality; refer student parents to other high-quality options off campus; or connect student parents to free community-based expertise, such as resource and referral agencies. Yet many student parents don’t have access to quality care on or off campus. Creating on-campus child care centers can be quite complex due to cost, space, government regulations, and other policies, and some institutions are exploring alternative solutions.
Some of the institutions interviewed, like City Colleges of New York (CUNY), have child care facilities on multiple campuses and are expanding to other off-campus sites where possible. In some cases, sharing agreements allow students to use the child care center closest to them if the campus does not have one. Each program tailors its services to the needs of student parents; for example, some sites are open for extended hours in the evening and over the weekends. Even during the pandemic, CUNY child care centers were open and providing a range of services to families.
Amarillo College also has child care centers on some of its campuses and encourages parents to be involved in the activities. According to the success lead, the centers are currently not self-sustaining, so the college is exploring other options to expand to meet existing demand. Institutions that do not have on-campus child care, or not enough slots to meet the need, could offer links to resources for off-campus child care. Colorado Mountain College, for example, is considering whether it makes sense to establish a referral system with resources to available providers.
Waukecha Wilkerson and her family
Several participating institutions have applied for federal Child Care Access Means Parents in School Program (CCAMPIS) grants to provide quality child care and other supports. In addition to covering vouchers for local child care centers, CCAMPIS funding can pay for a variety of other support services, such as a coordinator, and many institutions use internal funding to provide additional support. For example, Bunker Hill CC is currently working on its application for a CCAMPIS grant to hire a full-time staff member to be a liaison for student parents. The liaison would connect student parents to all the resources on campus as well as navigate off-campus resources. The role would connect with different offices on campus to help market information about resources for student parents, create a website for student parents, and otherwise be a contact for student parents. This will be a big change, because although students were getting supplemental vouchers for child care, CCAMPIS would cover their entire child care needs. The State College of Florida also applied for a CCAMPIS grant and has asked other institutions in the region that have grants for implementation advice. Amarillo College also applied for a CCAMPIS grant to provide more aid and support to students who need child care assistance.
In short, institutions must be flexible in how they address child care needs, whether using on-campus child care centers, CCAMPIS voucher systems, or structured assistance that links student parents to off-campus providers.
Key Strategy
Strengthen, and improve awareness of, services and facilities that the student parent population needs.
Facilities such as family resource centers, lactation centers, and diaper-changing stations are important for student parents. In fact, Karp et al., 2020 suggest requiring that “all new building or bathroom renovation projects include high-quality diaper-changing stations and lactation spaces.” Montgomery College hopes to have two full-time staff for its resource center and is planning to convert many bathrooms or other facilities to family restrooms with additional changing stations and create online maps and improved signage. El Paso CC is currently identifying places on all campuses for lactation centers as it builds or renovates sites for student parent resource centers.
We want it to be a place where student parents can come and bring their children with them… It’s really meant to be an all-encompassing safe space for student parents and their children.
Montgomery College
“We’ve been doing research about how other institutions have done it. Really, the message is, you can start super simple,” the student success lead said. Once the resource centers are open at every campus, the college will develop a directory of services and assemble an advisory group of student parents.
While student parents may need services targeted specifically to them, they may also benefit from services available to the broader student population, such as a food pantry and mental health resources. Accordingly, these services must also work for student parents, at the times and locations most accessible to them. Several institutions have a one-stop system that brings institutional services together with community partners along with an orientation or training for student parents on navigating the services and supports available.
For example, Bunker Hill CC has a single-stop office that connects student parents to various services and resources, including SNAP benefits, a local food pantry, financial literacy workshops, mental health services, and immigration lawyers. According to an assistant dean of students, “We try to really boost and offer items within our food pantry but also through single-stop and our other services to make sure that a student doesn’t have to make a choice of going without and that they have what they need to be successful.” El Paso CC would like to open social service centers on each campus run by social workers: “The person that is leading that effort is also part of our family-friendly effort. We’ve talked about how we can connect those two because family-friendly centers, social services centers, and mental health services all fit together,” said the student success lead.
The Scaffolding
A Focus on System-Wide and Long-Term Structural Shifts
Interviews for this playbook suggest that effective strategies must be developed and work within the scaffolding of policies, practices, and planning that institutions rely on for structure and sustainable growth. While “quick wins” that start with existing resources can be a catalyzing place to start, a focus on system-wide and long-term structural shifts is essential.
Explore underlying elements below and read the full Playbook for more details.
A systemic approach to accomplishing this includes the following underlying elements:
Leadership
Work with top leadership to make supporting student parents an institutional priority, including getting the support of the president and other leaders related to student parent success and instruction.
CentraLIZED reSPONSBILITY
Create a committee or task force that includes diverse offices (e.g., student services, facilities, institutional research, etc.) as well as faculty and students to secure cross-campus commitment.
faMILY-fRIENDLY pOLICIES
Review and revise institutional policies related to student parents as needed, including policies on minors on campus, to remove barriers to student parent success.
faCULTY
Engage faculty in student parent efforts to create inclusive and supportive classrooms.
iDENTIFICATION OF eARLY dATA
Collect data on student parent demographics in the short term to generate buy-in from internal and external audiences and lay a foundation for future action.
eXISTING rESOURCES
Start with existing resources, such as staff time and internal changes, to quickly begin increasing student parent supports.
nEW rESOURCES
After using existing resources and collecting data on initial successes, reach out for new funding, partnerships, and resources, and make the case for additional internal resources or staff to sustain efforts.
eXTERNAL pARTNERSHIPS
Leverage external partnerships, including philanthropic partners, community-based organizations, early childhood education providers, government agencies, and employers, to help maximize impact, expand the network of champions, and develop relationships that keep partners accountable for progress. A systemic approach creates important feedback loops, generates cross-campus buy-in, and builds momentum for student parent initiatives.
The various underlying elements function as the scaffolding on which the strategies to support student parents are built. The intentional use of data is both a key promising practice for designing supports for student parents and an essential component of the scaffolding that sustains the initiative.
Promising Practice 1
Identify, Collect, and Analyze Data on Student Parents to Understand Who They Are and What Would Support Their Success
As reflected in the interviews with the Leadership Circle and in the Family Friendly Campus Toolkit, it is important to recognize student parents as a population with unique barriers and experiences (Karp et al., 2020; Hatch & Toner, 2020). However, most institutions do not currently track the parenting status of their students (Ascend at the Aspen Institute, 2020a). Thus, an essential first step is to identify the student parents on campus. Student parent identification generally occurs in collaboration with institutional research (IR) and other offices, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches to better understand their needs. Including student parents in the data collection and analysis through focus groups, feedback on surveys, or other mechanisms can help identify effective strategies and supports.
Key Strategy
Use student data systems or existing sources to identify student parents on campus.
Institutions have used several approaches to identify student parents: admissions data, data from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and institutional survey data. The approaches are not mutually exclusive, and using a combination can help improve identification.
Approach 1 – Admissions data. Institutions can give student parents the opportunity to disclose parental status during the admissions process (Karp et al., 2020). This approach may involve modifying existing data systems, such as adding a question to the application or entrance portal to allow student parents to self-identify. Bunker Hill CC and Colorado Mountain College, for example, added an optional checkbox. However, many institutions may not be able to use this approach; as noted by City Colleges of New York (CUNY), with its 25 campuses, adding a field to the system application can be difficult.
Approach 2 – FAFSA data. Institutions have also used FAFSA data and/or state financial aid application data to identify students with dependent children, which can create an initial estimate. However, not all student parents apply for financial aid, so this approach may underestimate the student parent population. At Amarillo College, about 80 percent of students apply for financial aid, so the college felt this approach would capture most student parents. But at the State College of Florida, the FAFSA completion rate is relatively low, as is true across the state of Florida, so this approach was less useful.
Approach 3 – Survey data. Institutions also have surveyed all students on campus, allowing students to self-identify as parents, or they have initially used FAFSA information to identify student parents and then surveyed the student population to find additional parents who had not applied for aid. For example, Montgomery College staff used the information they could get from the FAFSA and the Maryland State Financial Aid Application to develop and send out a student parent identification questionnaire to the entire credit student population, plus some subsets of students in workforce development and continuing education.
For all of these approaches, once student parents are identified, other student data systems within the institution, such as those in admissions, the registrar, financial aid, student services, facilities, and other campus offices, can be used to obtain data on student demographics, attendance, major, academic status, enrolled courses, financial aid receipt, the supports and services they are using, and more. In addition, institutions might consider incorporating data from external systems, such as the National Student Clearinghouse, which can help round out data on student progression, transfer, and credential completion (Ascend at the Aspen Institute, 2020a).
Key Strategy
Engage student parents directly through surveys or focus groups to capture a fuller picture of their experiences and needs and to deepen relationships with them.
Once institutions identify student parents, it is useful to gain deeper insights from the student parents themselves using surveys, focus groups, or interviews. These tools are flexible in terms of both quantitative and qualitative data collection and can round out knowledge of student parent experiences. According to an Amarillo College student success lead, “Students will tell you what they need.”
Approach 1 – Surveys. Many institutions used surveys to better understand student parents’ experiences and perceptions. City Colleges of New York (CUNY)’s survey came out of its student parent task force and to CUNY’s surprise, had a high response rate. The survey revealed that “While financial challenges were the largest barrier to [student parents’] academic success, a good second was stress, anxiety, and depression. Childcare [was] a third runner-up.” The survey also provided space for student parents to input narrative data or request a phone call from CUNY staff. According to CUNY staff, of the 40,000 students surveyed, about 900 student parents wrote that they would like to be contacted by email; further, 35 students requested and received a phone call. Bunker Hill CC provided an incentive for survey participation, which it felt helped lead to a relatively high response rate and was received well by students.
Approach 2 – Focus groups and interviews. Focus groups and interviews with student parents can offer information on what supports they are using or need to access (Ascend at the Aspen Institute, 2020a). Several institutions hosted focus groups for student parents to provide feedback on the challenges they face, their needs, and how the institution could help. El Paso CC, for example, counted on its TRIO program (specifically, the Student Support Services) to recruit participants for focus groups. Colorado Mountain College asked some student parents who had taken its survey to also participate in a focus group and then added several alumni to provide additional perspective. The State College of Florida noted the usefulness of the focus groups when asking students about their needs: “Sometimes they don’t realize just how much information they can provide for us. I think that’s the first step: ask them.”
Key Strategy
Analyze data in collaboration with the IR office and other stakeholders.
Institutions have used several approaches to identify student parents: admissions data, data from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and institutional survey data. The approaches are not mutually exclusive, and using a combination can help improve identification.
When analyzing the data to identify and target the specific needs of student parents, it is important to engage and build a relationship with the IR office (Karp et al., 2020). The IR office can help disaggregate the data across a range of important metrics (e.g., demographics, enrollment and persistence, academic standing, and use of support services), which can contextualize the findings before making new interventions or targeting existing resources. For example, parents with young children may have different needs, such as child care, than parents of older children. The IR office can also help develop dashboards that visualize the data to help internal and external audiences understand who student parents are and what they need to succeed.
For example, the Amarillo College student success lead felt the institution “probably move[d] faster than most other schools because [of] our data analytics team … [which] got on board immediately.” The college merged data from institution data systems (such as enrollment records) with FAFSA data (used to identify student parents) to create a dashboard to compare past and current student parents to non-parents. The dashboard includes a range of variables, such as age of children under 18, gender, first generation or not, race/ethnicity, income, work experience, marital status, grades, coursework, persistence, student progress measures, utilization of support services, child care used, and campus attended. Individuals from different offices at the college then came together to discuss their short-, medium-, and long-range goals.
Bunker Hill CC plans to add “student parents” as a filter on its dashboard so this population can be incorporated into its institutional reports and other analyses. Some interesting insights have already emerged from its survey of student parents: three-quarters of the college’s student parents are first-generation college students, and student parents have higher GPAs and persistence rates than students overall. Once all of its student parents are identified, Colorado Mountain College will be able to use its data on enrollment, persistence, and completion to better understand stop-out patterns, course failures or withdrawals, and other information to target resources to where they are most needed. As the student success lead noted, “Once we had a sense of those things, we could look in and say, is this a financial thing? Is this a child care thing? Is this a time-deficit thing? Why are we losing you at these particular times, and then what can we do about it?”
Key Strategy
Use data systems to target specific and relevant information on resources and other supports to student parents.
Identifying student parents in institutional student data systems can make it easier to get them targeted information about available services. For example, Amarillo College can use its dashboard software to email materials to specific groups of student parents. Bunker Hill CC has added a question to its application for student parents to self-identify and wants to put that information into its new customer relationship management system to connect directly with student parents. The integration will offer more opportunities to target student parents with communications about resources specific to their needs. The system also can incorporate key data points into communication materials. In its upcoming recruitment plan, Bunker Hill plans to target both student parents and adult learners with specific recruitment activities, such as a student parent orientation managed by student affairs staff.
Promising Practice 1
Identify, Collect, and Analyze Data on Student Parents to Understand Who They Are and What Would Support Their Success
As reflected in the interviews with the Leadership Circle and in the Family Friendly Campus Toolkit, it is important to recognize student parents as a population with unique barriers and experiences (Karp et al., 2020; Hatch & Toner, 2020). However, most institutions do not currently track the parenting status of their students (Ascend at the Aspen Institute, 2020a). Thus, an essential first step is to identify the student parents on campus. Student parent identification generally occurs in collaboration with institutional research (IR) and other offices, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches to better understand their needs. Including student parents in the data collection and analysis through focus groups, feedback on surveys, or other mechanisms can help identify effective strategies and supports.
Key Strategy
Use student data systems or existing sources to identify student parents on campus.
Institutions have used several approaches to identify student parents: admissions data, data from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and institutional survey data. The approaches are not mutually exclusive, and using a combination can help improve identification.
Approach 1 – Admissions data. Institutions can give student parents the opportunity to disclose parental status during the admissions process (Karp et al., 2020). This approach may involve modifying existing data systems, such as adding a question to the application or entrance portal to allow student parents to self-identify. Bunker Hill CC and Colorado Mountain College, for example, added an optional checkbox. However, many institutions may not be able to use this approach; as noted by City Colleges of New York (CUNY), with its 25 campuses, adding a field to the system application can be difficult.
Approach 2 – FAFSA data. Institutions have also used FAFSA data and/or state financial aid application data to identify students with dependent children, which can create an initial estimate. However, not all student parents apply for financial aid, so this approach may underestimate the student parent population. At Amarillo College, about 80 percent of students apply for financial aid, so the college felt this approach would capture most student parents. But at the State College of Florida, the FAFSA completion rate is relatively low, as is true across the state of Florida, so this approach was less useful.
Approach 3 – Survey data. Institutions also have surveyed all students on campus, allowing students to self-identify as parents, or they have initially used FAFSA information to identify student parents and then surveyed the student population to find additional parents who had not applied for aid. For example, Montgomery College staff used the information they could get from the FAFSA and the Maryland State Financial Aid Application to develop and send out a student parent identification questionnaire to the entire credit student population, plus some subsets of students in workforce development and continuing education.
For all of these approaches, once student parents are identified, other student data systems within the institution, such as those in admissions, the registrar, financial aid, student services, facilities, and other campus offices, can be used to obtain data on student demographics, attendance, major, academic status, enrolled courses, financial aid receipt, the supports and services they are using, and more. In addition, institutions might consider incorporating data from external systems, such as the National Student Clearinghouse, which can help round out data on student progression, transfer, and credential completion (Ascend at the Aspen Institute, 2020a).
Key Strategy
Engage student parents directly through surveys or focus groups to capture a fuller picture of their experiences and needs and to deepen relationships with them.
Once institutions identify student parents, it is useful to gain deeper insights from the student parents themselves using surveys, focus groups, or interviews. These tools are flexible in terms of both quantitative and qualitative data collection and can round out knowledge of student parent experiences. According to an Amarillo College student success lead, “Students will tell you what they need.”
Approach 1 – Surveys. Many institutions used surveys to better understand student parents’ experiences and perceptions. City Colleges of New York (CUNY)’s survey came out of its student parent task force and to CUNY’s surprise, had a high response rate. The survey revealed that “While financial challenges were the largest barrier to [student parents’] academic success, a good second was stress, anxiety, and depression. Childcare [was] a third runner-up.” The survey also provided space for student parents to input narrative data or request a phone call from CUNY staff. According to CUNY staff, of the 40,000 students surveyed, about 900 student parents wrote that they would like to be contacted by email; further, 35 students requested and received a phone call. Bunker Hill CC provided an incentive for survey participation, which it felt helped lead to a relatively high response rate and was received well by students.
Approach 2 – Focus groups and interviews. Focus groups and interviews with student parents can offer information on what supports they are using or need to access (Ascend at the Aspen Institute, 2020a). Several institutions hosted focus groups for student parents to provide feedback on the challenges they face, their needs, and how the institution could help. El Paso CC, for example, counted on its TRIO program (specifically, the Student Support Services) to recruit participants for focus groups. Colorado Mountain College asked some student parents who had taken its survey to also participate in a focus group and then added several alumni to provide additional perspective. The State College of Florida noted the usefulness of the focus groups when asking students about their needs: “Sometimes they don’t realize just how much information they can provide for us. I think that’s the first step: ask them.”
Key Strategy
Analyze data in collaboration with the IR office and other stakeholders.
Institutions have used several approaches to identify student parents: admissions data, data from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and institutional survey data. The approaches are not mutually exclusive, and using a combination can help improve identification.
When analyzing the data to identify and target the specific needs of student parents, it is important to engage and build a relationship with the IR office (Karp et al., 2020). The IR office can help disaggregate the data across a range of important metrics (e.g., demographics, enrollment and persistence, academic standing, and use of support services), which can contextualize the findings before making new interventions or targeting existing resources. For example, parents with young children may have different needs, such as child care, than parents of older children. The IR office can also help develop dashboards that visualize the data to help internal and external audiences understand who student parents are and what they need to succeed.
For example, the Amarillo College student success lead felt the institution “probably move[d] faster than most other schools because [of] our data analytics team … [which] got on board immediately.” The college merged data from institution data systems (such as enrollment records) with FAFSA data (used to identify student parents) to create a dashboard to compare past and current student parents to non-parents. The dashboard includes a range of variables, such as age of children under 18, gender, first generation or not, race/ethnicity, income, work experience, marital status, grades, coursework, persistence, student progress measures, utilization of support services, child care used, and campus attended. Individuals from different offices at the college then came together to discuss their short-, medium-, and long-range goals.
Bunker Hill CC plans to add “student parents” as a filter on its dashboard so this population can be incorporated into its institutional reports and other analyses. Some interesting insights have already emerged from its survey of student parents: three-quarters of the college’s student parents are first-generation college students, and student parents have higher GPAs and persistence rates than students overall. Once all of its student parents are identified, Colorado Mountain College will be able to use its data on enrollment, persistence, and completion to better understand stop-out patterns, course failures or withdrawals, and other information to target resources to where they are most needed. As the student success lead noted, “Once we had a sense of those things, we could look in and say, is this a financial thing? Is this a child care thing? Is this a time-deficit thing? Why are we losing you at these particular times, and then what can we do about it?”
Key Strategy
Use data systems to target specific and relevant information on resources and other supports to student parents.
Identifying student parents in institutional student data systems can make it easier to get them targeted information about available services. For example, Amarillo College can use its dashboard software to email materials to specific groups of student parents. Bunker Hill CC has added a question to its application for student parents to self-identify and wants to put that information into its new customer relationship management system to connect directly with student parents. The integration will offer more opportunities to target student parents with communications about resources specific to their needs. The system also can incorporate key data points into communication materials. In its upcoming recruitment plan, Bunker Hill plans to target both student parents and adult learners with specific recruitment activities, such as a student parent orientation managed by student affairs staff.