By: Jordan Nellums
Parenting students should not be understood primarily through the challenges they experience. Their stories reflect resounding commitment, sacrifice and persistence–along with a deep belief in the value of higher education. For me, that story is also personal. Long before I worked in higher education policy, I saw it firsthand through my mother. Understanding parenting students requires seeing both sides of the story, being a student but most importantly a parent first.
My Mom Was a Parenting Student
My mom was a parenting student long before I knew there was a term for it.
After having my older brother in the 1990s, she stepped away from college to focus on raising her family. Her education did not end there, though. Years later, she found her way back, first attending community college and eventually continuing towards her bachelor’s degree. By then, she was raising three boys.
Some of my clearest memories of her time in college are from middle school. After picking up my twin brother and me up, there were evenings we would go with her to night classes while my father was at work. At the time, I did not think much about what that required of her. She was simply our mom, doing homework, going to class, working, and making sure we got where we needed to be. Looking back, I understand that she was navigating roles that higher education too often treats as separate: student, worker, parent, and caregiver.
She eventually earned her bachelor’s degree the same year my older brother graduated from high school. When it came time for graduation, she decided not to walk across the stage. She wanted that moment to belong to her son.
Her story is deeply personal to me, but it is hardly unique. Across the country, millions of students are pursuing a postsecondary education while also raising children and supporting families. Their experiences are often described in terms of the challenges they face – and those challenges are real. But focusing only on the hardships misses an equally important part of the story: parenting students continue to pursue college because they see value in what an education can mean for themselves and their families.
Who Are Parenting Students?
Parenting students are not a small or uniform group, and their experiences challenge many of the assumptions that still shape how we think about the “typical” college student. Trellis Strategies’ Fall 2025 Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) offers a useful snapshot of this population. Parenting students were older, on average, than undergraduates overall and were predominantly women.
Notably, as seen in figure 1, their relationship to work and college also looked different, nearly two-thirds of employed student parents identified themselves as “a worker who goes to school,” compared to only one-third of all undergraduates. For many parenting students, college constitutes one major responsibility among several, alongside employment, childcare, household management, and caregiving.
Although their experiences differ from that of a traditional college student, they remain integral to the contemporary higher education landscape. This distinction becomes more apparent when examining college systems that were not designed with their needs in mind. Recognizing these differences is essential for understanding whom higher education truly serves.
College Was Not Designed With Parenting Students in Mind
Much of the college experience still assumes that students have flexibility outside the classroom. Course schedules, campus services, financial aid processes, and other institutional structures can be difficult to navigate for students balancing classes with employment and caregiving. For those raising children, working, and managing households, such flexibility is typically constrained.
Figure 1 also illustrates how those competing responsibilities show up in students’ financial lives.
- 70% of parenting students said they would have difficulty accessing $500 for an unexpected expense, compared with 54% of undergraduates overall.
- 60% experienced housing insecurity, compared with 35% of undergraduates, and
- 53% experienced food insecurity, compared with 42% overall.
- 38% said they had run out of money eight or more times during the year, compared with 21% of undergraduates overall.
However, those challenges coexist with considerable confidence in higher education: 86% of parenting students believe that earning a college degree will enhance their quality of life, and 79% consider college a sound investment in their financial future.
This reality brings me back to my own mother. When my twin brother and I accompanied her to night classes, her role as a parent continued even as she participated in class. Her responsibilities as both a student and a mother coexisted. For parenting students, this overlap is not an exception but rather defines their college experience. Consequently, effective policies and support systems are essential for these students.
Parenting Students in Federal Policy
Parenting students also occupy a distinct, though relatively limited, place in federal higher education policy. The most direct federal effort is the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program, which provides grants to colleges and universities to support childcare for low-income parenting students. In 2026, the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services announced more than $73.5 million for the new CCAMPIS grant competition, reflecting the federal government’s continued recognition of childcare as an important part of the college experience for students raising children. The Trump Administration’s recent fiscal year 2026 budget request proposes no funding for CCAMPIS, arguing that states, localities, and institutions are better positioned to support these services. This tension underscores both the importance and the vulnerability of one of the few federal programs designed specifically around the needs of parenting students.
What Can Policymakers and Institutions Do?
Trellis Strategies’ prior research points to several practical ways institutions and policymakers can translate recognition of parenting students into meaningful support:
- Make existing supports easier to find and navigate. Institutions should make parenting-student resources visible through the places students already interact with, such as institutional websites, registration, advising, financial aid, and student affairs. This could include a centralized parenting-students webpage with clear points of contact.
- Reduce administrative barriers to accessing support. Parenting students already balance college, work, caregiving, and other responsibilities. Institutions can avoid adding unnecessary administrative burden by simplifying eligibility and application processes and establishing clear points of contact.
- Account for dependent care costs in the cost of attendance. Institutions can reduce financial barriers for parenting students by allowing dependent-care expenses in cost of attendance calculations.
- Pair navigation with tangible supports. Supports can include financial assistance, childcare access, and peer/community support. Better information and navigation matter, but they cannot substitute for material resources. Institutions should connect parenting students with support that address the actual financial, caregiving, and social pressures associated with attending college while raising children.
Conclusion: Seeing Parenting Students More Clearly
My mother’s college journey looked different from the one we often imagine when we think about higher education. She was not solely a student attending classes; she was a mother raising three children, a worker, a caregiver, and someone committed to completing her education. My brothers and I were not merely observers of her journey; we shared it with her.
When my mother earned her bachelor’s degree the same year my older brother graduated from high school, her path may not have looked like the traditional college experience. But perhaps that is precisely the point. The way we picture a college student has not always kept pace with the people higher education actually serves.
She and many others like her are the modern learner.
Jordan Nellums is a Senior Policy Analyst at Trellis Strategies. He holds a Master of Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Texas A&M University, College Station. Before joining Trellis, Jordan served as a Senior Policy Associate at The Century Foundation, where he researched and developed policy recommendations focused on college affordability, student financial aid, HBCUs, and higher education finance. He also worked in the Texas A&M System Government Relations office, authoring reports, commentaries, and policy analyses, briefing policymakers, and contributing research that informed federal and state higher education policy discussions. His research emphasis includes college affordability, student financial aid, student loan policy, HBCU funding, state higher education finance, and expanding postsecondary access for historically underserved students.
Jordan was drawn to Trellis because of its commitment to improving postsecondary outcomes through research, data, and practical policy solutions, and its focus on partnering with institutions and policymakers to put evidence-based strategies into action. As a former Pell grant recipient, he knows firsthand how transformative higher education can be, and he is passionate about ensuring other students have access to the same opportunities that changed the trajectory of his own life. His soapbox is college affordability: making sure students have the financial support they need not just to enroll, but to complete their education, and identifying ways to make financial aid systems more effective, equitable, and easier to navigate. Jordan defines student success broadly, as students achieving the goals that brought them to higher education in the first place, whether that is launching a career, transferring institutions, supporting a family, or continuing their education, without being burdened by unnecessary financial obstacles along the way. He finds the most fulfillment in connecting research to real-world decision making, translating complex policy issues into recommendations that can meaningfully improve students’ lives.
Outside of work, Jordan stays active through weightlifting and running, and he also enjoys DJing and trying out new recipes in the kitchen.