Supporting Young Parents in Higher Education

This resource from the Annie E. Casey Foundation explores strategies aimed at helping young parents succeed in college. This population of over 3 million undergraduates with kids — 275,000 of them under the age of 25 — must navigate substantial barriers while striving for a better future.

The Foundation’s Expanding Opportunities for Young Families initiative demonstrates that colleges and communities can better align academic, financial and social resources to help improve outcomes for young college students and their children.

Community colleges in Austin, Miami and Santa Fe participated in the Foundation’s initiative with a goal of helping young parenting students achieve both educational success and greater family stability. From 2019 to 2024, these sites and their partners tested practices designed to help young parents enroll in community college and stay on course through graduation. Each college leveraged practices that aligned their resources and their parenting students’ needs. Strategies included offering student success coaches, parenting student advisory groups, flexible academic programs and designated liaisons to help families navigate the resources available to them.

Click here to read the full resource.

Source: Annie E. Casey Foundation