Parenting students often feel overlooked, partly because colleges have incomplete data about their enrollment patterns. Fortunately, lawmakers are now trying to change that. Earlier this month, representatives Deborah Ross (D-NC), Lucy McBath (D-GA), and Don Bacon (R-NE) reintroduced the bipartisan Understanding Student Parents Outcomes Act. This legislation would require that colleges collect comprehensive data on parenting students to better support their higher education journey and address their needs to succeed.

Roughly one in five undergraduates is a parenting student. For graduate students, one in four are parents, making over 3.7 million parenting students in the U.S. higher education system. But, we know that the data on parenting students is incomplete. The data we have is based on students that complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and we know that many students never complete the FAFSA. Limited data leaves colleges, states, and the Department of Education blind to the true size of this student population, making it difficult to know how much to invest in crucial supports such as enhanced financial aid and on-campus child care—which survey research from Trellis Strategies shows that these are what parenting students need to succeed in college. Better data will help colleges target the right support to parenting students, increasing their chances of success, and long term economic security for their families.

Parenting students face unique challenges due to the intense demands of caring for their children, working to support their families, and balancing their academic workload. They pay higher non-tuition costs than their non-parenting peers because of expenses like child care. For example, in 2024 child care was approximately $13,000 per child on average, according to a Child Care Aware analysis, which in many states is more than the price of tuition at public institutions. Parenting students also have intersecting identities and wear many hats, for example, most are first generation students, student veterans, and working full time. According to Student Veterans of America research, more than half of student veterans have children and roughly 20 percent are single parents. These students want to advance their careers and create a better future for themselves and their children. Even with these different responsibilities and challenges they navigate, parenting students earn similar grades compared to their nonparenting peers, demonstrating their strong work ethic. Improved information on the parenting student population would help colleges properly identify the different types of support they should be providing for them to reach their various goals.

Since there is no federal requirement for colleges to collect comprehensive data on parenting students, colleges are left to use information they can gather from the FAFSA, along with a patchwork of institutional surveys. However, this fragmented data leaves us without crucial information about parenting students’ demographics and needs. For example, insufficient data on the age of parenting student’s children at individual colleges makes it hard for institutional staff to advocate for funding to support on-campus child care.

The bipartisan Understanding Student Parents Outcomes Act would improve the data on parenting students by establishing a standard definition on who a parenting student is, making it easier to track national enrollment and success trends for parenting students, as well as make it easier to identify whether parenting students need additional support. The legislation would require colleges to collect data at the campus level, so they know how many parenting students they enroll, and then report that information into IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) reporting.

At least five states so far have passed similar legislation to improve data collection on parenting students: Oregon, Illinois, Michigan, Texas, and most recently, California passed its GAINS Act which requires California colleges to collect information on parenting status, and to factor in childcare costs when determining financial aid for parenting students. These state data bills are a step in the right direction. However, a cohesive federal standard would be simpler, removing the need to rely on a patchwork of state and institutional data collections. When colleges gather better data, they can make informed changes that directly empower parenting students with the right resources to persist and succeed in school.

Higher education has the power to unlock doors that will help parenting students succeed and gain greater financial security and career advancement. However, parenting students need targeted support, and better data is the starting point to address their unique needs. Ultimately, with better data, colleges can improve the structure and provision of their support services, which can be a catalyst to improved parenting student completion and retention rates. The Understanding Student Parents Outcomes Act will open doors for colleges to build the infrastructure necessary to support the success of their parenting student population.