More than one in five college students — or 22% of all undergraduates — are parents, according to a recent analysis of data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. The largest share of student parents is enrolled in community colleges, with 42% of all student parents attending community colleges.
More than one in five college students — 22% of all undergraduates — are parents. 42% of all student parents attend community colleges.
Securing adequate child care is critical for these students, as a lack of good child care delays the ability of potential student parents to either upskill or join the workforce at all and better support their families.
But there are a variety of challenges.
Community college child care options lag student needs everywhere because of insufficient investment at the federal and state government levels.
In addition, with federal funding to relevant child care support programs for students at risk of cuts, states may need to pick up the slack, yet the resources and responsiveness of states varies.
And community colleges that attempt to solve child care problems through the most resource-intensive approach — building child care centers — are likely doomed to fail, says Iris Palmer, director for community colleges at New America, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that examines a variety of social issues. “They’re just too small, don’t have enough slots, are too expensive, and don’t serve everyone’s needs,” Palmer says, adding that many community college child care centers have large wait lists.
For the past two years, Palmer has led New America’s Child Care for Student Parents at Community Colleges Cohort Initiative (Cohort Initiative) that has studied approaches to helping student parents find child care solutions at 10 community colleges across the country. A final report is expected in October 2025.
There are a variety of community college child care solutions that may be scalable, Palmer says.
These include:
State or local bond funding: Such funding may be an option to support community college child care efforts. In 2022, for example, voters in Benton County, Ore., passed a $16 million bond measure that enabled construction of the Periwinkle Child Development Center at Linn-Benton Community College (LBCC) in Albany, Ore., which serves 57 children aged 2 to 5, as well as other campus facility improvements.
Child care resource centers: Rather than actually providing care for children, child care resource and referral centers (CCRCs) function to refer and connect parents to different child care options, expanding the range of child care options available to them, Palmer says. For many community colleges, having a CCRC actually located onsite, as is the case for LBCC, can be a best practice by increasing access to students and community college employees and by providing infrastructure resources to CCRCs that otherwise lack them.
Courtesy of David Tobenkin
David Tobenkin
Technology: Technology can help connect student parents with child care financial resources. In spring 2026, for example, Montgomery College in Montgomery County, Md. will begin offering Mirza, an app that helps parents find child care subsidies at the local, state and federal levels and, with parent authorization, automatically apply for those subsidies.
Drop-in/flexible care: With respect to child care centers, the need for drop-in care, rather than full-week blocks of Monday through Friday child care, was a clear need found in the study, in part because it can complement friend-and-family child care, which Palmer notes is often not a reliable form of care. Similarly, reducing the minimum number of days of participation in day care centers increases flexibility for parents, some interviewed noted.
Family-friendly spaces: Providing family-friendly spaces where parents can both study and keep an eye on children can be an option. At Montgomery College, the school is creating family-friendly spaces in stand-alone libraries in three campuses as well as a shared space with its Learning Center at its East County Education Center.
Care for infants and toddlers: Perhaps the most difficult challenge for community college child care centers is providing care for the youngest children, those under three, as many states’ rules mandate lower parent-teacher ratios, making such care more costly. Many child care centers serve only kids aged 3 to 5, leaving student parents with younger kids to fend for themselves. In contrast, Madison Area Technical College (Madison College) has served younger kids, children aged 6 weeks to 5 years, since 2021. Madison College’s practice of implementing mixed age groups of 6 weeks to 2 years, rather than year by year, has allowed greater flexibility in filling open child care slots.
Wraparound support services: Some community colleges help student parents with a variety of issues related to child care. Forsyth Technical Community College (Forsyth Tech) created a Student Parent Advocacy Resource Center (SPARC) two years ago to offer a variety of support services and create a community of student parents with similar needs.
Which solutions will work at which institutions may be driven by the needs and resources of institutions, but the study will find a quiver of different, flexible and responsive child care options is more likely than a single preconceived approach to address the child care needs of student parents, Palmer says.
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David Tobenkin is a freelance writer based in the greater Washington, D.C. area. Support for this reporting was provided by the Better Life Lab at New America.
