The Student Parent Equity Imperative: Guidance for the Biden-Harris Administration. Policy Brief #C496

Abstract

As the Biden-Harris administration seeks to hasten the country's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, reforming the U.S. higher education system to ensure equitable access and attainment for all adults is more important than ever. Most student parents are mothers, students of color, adult and working learners, students with low incomes, and first-generation students--characteristics that can overlap to create steep obstacles in their efforts to achieve success. COVID-19 has disproportionately increased the caregiving, financial, and emotional burdens on these student parents and their families. For many, this has led them to suspend their educational plans at higher rates than students without caregiving demands. This memorandum serves as a call to the Biden-Harris administration to include parenting students and their families in its policymaking efforts tied to postsecondary education, early care and education access, and social welfare. It provides policy recommendations to prioritize student parents and their families' wellbeing and contribute to the development of sustainable and equitable pathways to educational attainment. The recommendations span four areas: (1) supporting student parents' college access and success; (2) building affordable pathways to college for student parents; (3) expanding caregiving support and child care access for student parents; and (4) increasing basic needs security for student parent families.