Michael Burke for EdSource

Compton College, one of 116 community colleges in California.

Michael Burke for EdSource

Compton College, one of 116 community colleges in California.

California state and local college leaders need to find new ways to identify student parents and ensure they have access to all financial, childcare, mental health, and campus resources, according to two new research reports.

The Reports, UC Davis’ Wheelhouse Research Center, released Thursday, offers one of the most comprehensive insights into a sizeable population of students in California’s higher education systems yet. Students who are also parents are mostly enrolled in community colleges, more women and older than their peers.

When reviewing grant applications in 2018, the study’s authors found that of 1.5 million applicants in California, approximately 202,000 were parents. Approximately 72% of these parents intended to enroll in one of the community colleges in California. Once student parents arrive at community college, they are less likely to earn a degree or certificate than non-parents.

“We think a lot about the real needs of English learners, low-income students, foster youth, and other groups,” said Sherrie Reed, executive director of the California Education Lab at UC Davis and one of the authors. “This is just one additional subset of students that I think we really need to invest in if we are to improve and improve post-secondary outcomes in our state.”

The main report, released Thursday, outlines student parent enrollment trends at California’s colleges and universities, and compares those students with their peers on demographics, academic performance, and more.

The other report Investigates an anonymous community college in California and finds that college student parents struggle to meet basic needs, lack access to some campus services, and say the campus environment is often hostile to them.

“Student parents are motivated to get higher education, but the support systems are not in place,” said Adrian Huerta, assistant professor at USC’s Rossier School of Education and one of the authors of the second research report.

Here are the key findings from the two UC Davis Research Briefs:

• 13% of all California students who applied for financial assistance in 2018 were parents.
• Of these, 7 out of 10 intended to enroll in community college.
• Four out of five student parents at community colleges are women.
• About a quarter of student parents who entered community college in 2012 will receive a degree or certificate within six years.
• The average income of student parents at Community College in 2018 was $ 28,495.

Since the data for the two research papers was collected in 2018, the research does not show how the pandemic may affect students’ parents and their enrollment trends.

The researchers found that one in ten students at California’s community colleges is a parent. Since their data only includes students who have applied for financial assistance, this is likely an undercounting of the total number of parents in community colleges, Reed said.

Among parents who enrolled in California community college in 2018-19, approximately 80% were women.

The student parents are on average older than their peers. In 2016-17, only 53% of parents at community colleges were under the age of 20, compared with 87% of nonparents.

The racial demographics of student parents in community colleges are largely similar to nonparents, with the exception of black students, who made up 13% of student parents but only 7% of nonparents. About half of the student parents are Latinos, 25% are white, and 14% are Asian or other race.

Courtesy Jessica Hecox

Jessica Hecox, a single mother studying at American River College, reserves her weekends for “fun time” with her 2 year old son.

“It feels good to know that I am improving myself so my son can have a better life,” said Jessica Hecox, 25, who is a construction management graduate at American River Community College in Sacramento. “Just because you’re becoming a parent doesn’t mean you have to stop doing things because they can be tough or fill your plate. If anything, your kids should get you to work harder and get better. “

Hecox has a two-year-old son and works full time for a construction company. She hopes her education will help her move forward in the company.

At the age of 48, Sysong Vue studied mechanical engineering at the American River Community College in Sacramento. The mother of five dreams of working for NASA or SpaceX. While her children are now grown up, she is still juggling her family’s needs.

Courtesy of Sysong Vue

Sysong Vue (48), center, student at American River College, with her four children Angel Thao (30), left, with her fiancé Jessica Thao (29), front left, Ethan Thao (20), front right, Asya Thao ( 27) and her boyfriend. With two children still living with her, Vue continues her education in the hope of working as an aerospace engineer.

“They understood the sacrifice I made to take care of them and make sure they grew up safe,” she said. “And now that they are of legal age, they fully support me in going back to school and they know that I am studying and staying in my room a lot. But I always let them know that they can always come in and interrupt me when they need to talk or do something. I’m not always just shut down in my bladder. “

Reed said it was important that colleges do everything they could to identify the students’ parents. This could be as simple as asking students for this information when they enroll.

“We collect a lot of data from students when they enroll,” Reed said. “Your address, your race, your ethnicity, your gender identification. The question of whether they are also responsible for children is another question we might ask ourselves. And not to punish them, but to be able to offer more support services. “

Parents are less likely to stay in college and complete a degree or certificate after a year than nonparents. Of the parents who entered college in 2012 and applied for financial assistance, nearly 30% did not return in the sophomore year. About 24% of parents obtained a degree or certificate within six years, compared with 28% of non-parents who applied for financial assistance.

At an unidentified community college in California, parents face a number of challenges that may make it difficult for them to get through college. Interviewed researchers 67 black, Latin American, Asian American, and Pacific islanders who attended this college that the researchers did not identify due to privacy concerns.

These students described an undesirable campus environment. For example, they shared signage photos stating that children were not allowed in certain buildings and remembered coming for counseling appointments with their children only to find out they had to move their children and not bring them with them.

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Parents reported that they also had problems accessing campus resources that were supposed to help them. For example, some parents said they could not use daycare on campus because space and hours were limited, or because their children did not meet the age requirements.

Some student parents said they struggled to afford basic necessities such as transportation and internet access, which has become a necessity since colleges transitioned to online teaching during the pandemic.

While many parents received tuition waivers and government grants, few received Cal Grants, the main source of government-funded grants, the researchers found. Many of these Cal Grant awards have age restrictions that prevent older students from receiving them. State legislators proposed reforming the Cal Grant program In removing these age requirements, something Huerta said would be a good “first step”.

But Huerta added that individual colleges also bear the burden of doing more to help students’ parents. This could mean extending working hours in day care centers or setting up “single stop” resource centers where parents can learn about all of the academic, financial and social resources available to them.

“These are not groundbreaking ideas. They’re really simple, basic practices that colleges can proactively handle, ”said Huerta.

Emily Chung, a student at the University of Southern California, and Taylor Helmes, a student at California State University at Dominguez Hills, contributed to this story. They are members of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.

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