47. Co-locate childcare facilities and college campuses to provide access to affordable high-quality childcare.

Finance 09.6.24

Here’s what the federal government can do:

  • Congress should provide funding to create Early Head Start and Head Start Centers on college campuses.
  • Congress should support participation of childcare providers who are located on or near college campuses in existing sources of childcare funding.
  • Congress should provide targeted funding to increase the participation of parents with lower incomes in postsecondary education through the provision of campus-based childcare services.

Here’s what state government can do:

  • State legislatures should support the development and operation of affordable, high-quality childcare facilities near college campuses.

Here’s what institutional leaders can do:

  • Institutions should provide space for childcare centers to enable student parents to access childcare while they are attending class.

Providing convenient access to affordable, quality childcare would help remove a significant barrier to degree completion for student parents. Colleges and universities can provide a valuable benefit to student parents by establishing partnerships with federal programs, such as the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) Program, which seeks to increase the participation of parents with lower incomes in postsecondary education through the provision of campus-based childcare services.[i]

In a survey of 140 student parents, the majority of whom were students of color, 92 percent did not have access to or were unaware of on-campus childcare options, and 74 percent were attending school while providing more than 30 hours of care for their child/ren each week.[ii]

[i]U.S. Department of Education. Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools Program (CCAMPIS). https://www2.ed.gov/programs/campisp/index.html.

[ii]Of the 140 student parents surveyed, 95 percent of respondents were students of color. Respondents were enrolled in undergraduate programs at 19 colleges and universities across the Washington, D.C. region (Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia). See: Johns, Kristi; Breakstone, Marlee; Lewis, Lynn. “The Child Care Barrier: The Impacts of Inaccessible and Costly Child Care for Student Parents,” Generation Hope. 2023. https://www.generationhope.org/child-care-report-2023/#jump.