Texas lawmakers enacted a series of policies in 2023 aimed at reducing barriers to higher education for pregnant and parenting students, including a required campus liaison, expanded protections, and priority registration. This brief draws on Trellis Strategies’ Texas Parenting Student Survey of 397 parenting students across 49 institutions to examine how these policies are being implemented and experienced on the ground. The findings reveal a significant gap between policy design and student awareness: most respondents did not know their institution offered priority registration or had a designated parenting student liaison, and only a small share had interacted with either resource. Among students who did access these supports, however, experiences were overwhelmingly positive. The brief offers recommendations for institutions and state leaders to move from compliance to impact by making these supports more visible and accessible.
