Support Services for Student Parents at Community Colleges Make All the Difference

Access to child care is a basic need for student parents with young children. Without affordable and reliable options, many are forced to stop out or abandon their pursuit of higher education. But access to child care is not enough. Programs have to be flexible enough to allow parents to care for their children while in college.

Take the example of Aragsan, a nursing student at a state university in Massachusetts, who had to make the heartbreaking decision to send her two children to live with family on another continent. With no one available to care for them while she juggled a demanding clinical and class schedule and full-time work, she had no other choice. The alternative would have been to pause or give up on her dream of becoming a registered nurse.

“If you miss one lab or a clinical, you get a warning and have to pay $700 to make it up. If you miss again without documentation, you’re out of the program. It’s heartbreaking to commit to this schedule when you have no childcare support, missing even one lab or clinical feels like signing up for failure. I had to send my kids to live with family just to stay in the program. The hardest part is living continents away from them to navigate a system that penalizes parents for needing flexibility.”

Aragsan previously attended Quinsigamond Community College (QCC), where she earned an Associate of General Studies while serving as the sole caregiver for her two children, one of whom has special needs. At the time, both children were school-aged, requiring child care before and after school while Aragsan attended classes or worked full-time. She credits her ability to balance these demanding responsibilities to the support services available at the community college, which made it possible for her to manage full-time parenting, full-time study, and full-time work.

When it came time to pursue a nursing degree, Aragsan faced a difficult decision. She could either wait to get off a two-year waitlist at QCC to pursue an Associate Degree in Nursing or transfer to her current state university to pursue a four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She strongly preferred to remain at QCC because of its supportive culture, flexibility, and the services it offered to student parents. However, she ultimately chose to transfer because getting off the waitlist at QCC would have required her to delay starting the program, a delay she simply could not afford.

She is now a third-year nursing student, but getting to this point required the most difficult sacrifice of all: sending her two children to live on a different continent. She felt there was no other viable option at the time. However, she now reflects that if she could go back, she would have waited to get off the waitlist at QCC. Aragsan is confident that she could have successfully cared for her children and excelled in the nursing program at QCC while working full-time, largely because of the support services available and a campus culture that does not penalize students with children. She pointed to a current nursing student at QCC who had a newborn and was still able to continue in the program. Reflecting on that example, Aragsan believes she could have managed too, especially with school-aged children.

“The waitlist for QCC’s nursing program was two years long. I couldn’t afford to pause my education that long, which forced me to transfer. If I’d known how unsupportive the state university would be, I would’ve waited. At QCC, even a student with a newborn managed the program, I could’ve done it too [because of] their resources.”

At QCC, a Perkins needs assessment revealed that approximately 40 percent of students in career-focused programs were parents, many of whom were dropping out at high rates despite strong academic motivation. In response, QCC took intentional steps to support student parents by hiring a full-time staff member dedicated to coordinating resources for them. Since taking on the role, the Parenting Students Navigator has led efforts to expand campus support services. The Navigator reports that most students who use her services are enrolled in the nursing program. In Aragsan’s case, QCC’s TRIO office also played a key role by helping her secure after-school care for her children.

The situation at the state university is starkly different. During Aragsan’s time in the nursing program, three students with children have dropped out, citing a lack of support and understanding. To her knowledge, she is now the only parenting student remaining in her class year. Aragsan observes that the program at the state university appears to be designed primarily for students who are fresh out of high school and have minimal outside responsibilities. In contrast, student parents who also work full-time face significant challenges. Beyond lacking targeted support services, the college culture often penalizes student parents. Aragsan recounts multiple incidents in which faculty and staff were dismissive or unsupportive when student parents requested reasonable accommodations.

“I had a classmate…she talked to the dean of my program…and she was like, ‘I have a disabled husband, and I have kids, and I have to provide for them.’ The dean of the nursing program, who was also the professor teaching that course, dismissed her by saying, ‘Oh, you have all that going on? I don’t think this program is meant for you.’ It wasn’t just a faculty member, it was someone in charge of the entire program, which shows how deeply unsupportive the culture is.”

The primary factor preventing Aragsan from transferring back to QCC is the curricular differences between the state university and QCC’s nursing program, which hinder the transferability of her credits. Additionally, she has already incurred substantial student loan debt. Otherwise, she believes that pursuing an Associate Degree in Nursing at QCC would have been the most practical and supportive path for her as a single-parenting student. Her experience underscores the unique and mutually beneficial role that community colleges can play when they intentionally support student parents. With the majority of student parents enrolled at community colleges, and growing national efforts to re-enroll adult learners, institutions like QCC are well-positioned to serve as models for inclusive, parenting student-centered support.