By: Ashley Mowreader

The topline:

Three in five student parents spend 40-plus hours a week providing care for dependents.
Nearly two-thirds of parenting students worry about having enough money to pay for monthly expenses.
Nearly four in five student parents believe the cost of college is a good investment for their financial future, despite more than half being food and housing insecure.

September is Parenting Students Month, a time for policymakers and higher education leaders to consider and center the unique needs of modern learners whose care and attention are split between college, career and children.

Approximately 17% of undergraduate students hold caregiving responsibilities, according to Trellis Strategies’ Fall 2025 Student Financial Wellness Survey. Other national studies place the figure closer to one in five.

Parenting students, in addition to having additional personal responsibilities than their peers without children, are more likely to be working, experience basic needs insecurity, hold debt and run out of money, according to SFWS data.

Who are student parents?

Parenting students, like many non-traditional students enrolled in higher education, can experience difficulty juggling their many roles, including student, parent, and worker. Eighty-eight percent of student parents said they provide financial support for their children and 60% spend 40 or more hours per week providing care for dependents, more than the average full-time job. In addition to caregiving, nearly two-thirds of employed student parents say their identity as a worker comes first before being a student.

Affordability concerns

Students at two-year colleges are more likely to be a parenting student (25 percent) compared to their peers at four-year colleges (8%), which may be tied to flexible program offerings available for two-year colleges as well as lower average tuition prices.

Students with dependents often face threats of time scarcity that come with juggling their needs and the needs of their family. Sixty-two percent of student parents in the SFWS worry about having enough money to pay for their monthly expenses and 38% said they ran out of money eight or more times in the past 12 months.

More than a quarter of parenting students reported being single, which is often associated with a likelihood of financial and basic needs insecurity. Prior research shows single mothers are more likely to hold a higher median debt or to graduate without a degree, making supporting this population with basic needs insecurity and attainment goals particularly significant.

Student parents, compared to their peers, were also more likely to report using Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services in 2025 (44%versus 23%), and four in 10 caregiving students said their total debt is not manageable.

Child care needs

Child care can be a critical service to allow parenting students to attend class, prioritize their academics and remain enrolled in postsecondary education. In the Fall 2025 Student Financial Wellness Survey, 38%of student parents said loss of child care support would mean less time to focus on their academics, and 30%would drop classes or take fewer classes. One in four parenting students said they’d be less likely to enroll in future semesters without child care.

This dynamic plays out during the academic year: in 2025, one in five parenting students had missed at least one day of class due to a lack of childcare and a similar number of working students (many of whom are parents) missed at least one day of class due to conflicts with their work schedules.

College still valuable

Despite all these barriers, students with dependents still believe in the value of higher education. Eighty-six percent of student parents believe a college degree will provide them with a higher quality of life and 79%of college students believe the cost of college is a good investment for their financial future.

When policymakers and higher education leaders understand what parenting students are navigating, they are better positioned to design supports that help them persist and complete. For more resources from Trellis Strategies on supporting student parents, check our Research Hub.

Ashley Mowreader is a freelance data journalist. Previously, Ashley worked for Inside Higher Ed, covering barriers to student success nationally, with a focus on evidence-based solutions. She holds a bachelor’s in journalism from Pepperdine University and is currently pursuing her master’s in journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. 