New from ASN core partner Achieving the Dream, comes a guidebook designed for institutional leaders and student success teams who want to better support parenting students—those balancing coursework while raising children.
Part of the Knowing Our Students supplemental series, this resource explores population-specific challenges and campus-based strategies that improve student outcomes. Using a student-centered design process, Grounded in a student-centered design process, this guide helps colleges uncover the everyday realities of parenting students and adapt campus policies, supports, and services to better meet their needs.
Read more about this guidebook from our partner Achieving The Dream.
What You’ll Find in This Guidebook:
Student Stories:
Powerful first-person narratives from parenting students illustrate how community support and access to child care can shape academic journeys.
Barriers Faced:
- Structural: Gaps in identifying parenting students, limited child care, unclear campus policies
- Policy & Process: Inflexible schedules, financial aid complications, restrictive attendance policies
- Cultural: Stigma, gendered expectations, isolation, and lack of representation
Strategies That Work:
The guide highlights approaches that help campuses create family-friendly environments—such as flexible learning, targeted financial support, and campus spaces that welcome children.
Case Studies:
- Dallas College (TX): Scaled a Family Care Program with three tiers of holistic support
- Florida State College at Jacksonville: Created parenting-specific liaisons, trainings, and resources
- United Tribes Technical College (ND): Offers housing for parenting students and support through employment partnerships
Implementation Insights:
This guide offers actionable strategies for colleges ready to improve how they serve parenting students. Readers will learn about:
- How to use data to identify and support parenting students
- Ways to increase flexibility in course design and advising
- Models for building on-campus child care and financial aid programs
- How to connect students to personal, family, and community resources
This guide builds on Knowing Our Students: Understanding and Designing for Success, the foundational resource from Achieving the Dream and the ASN, and is part of a supplemental series that focuses on student groups often navigating complex responsibilities—such as justice-impacted students and adult learners—and how institutions can better support their success.