Identifying Institutional Needs for Student Parents in Community Colleges: Recommendation for Successful Policy and Practice

Community colleges serve as the primary entry point for many nontraditional student populations. Over 3.8 million students in higher education are student parents (e.g., college students with dependents), and 42% of student parents are enrolled in community colleges across the country. In this report, we center the voices and experiences of student parents as well as the resources needed to better support them in two-year colleges. We have developed this report based on content analysis and interviews with 100+ student parents and five community college staff members who work in student-parent specific programs (i.e., student-parent initiatives, CARE, CalWORKS). We provide recommendations for improved institutional and system-wide practices, and detail student parent programs and resources available at 30+ community colleges.