Despite an increase in the number of college students with children, campus-based child care at public colleges is steadily becoming more scarce, according to a new analysis released Thursday.
Meanwhile, the number of student parents increased from 3.2 million in 1995 to 4.8 million in 2012, according to the institute’s analysis.
“Despite the growing need for student parent supports, campus child care centers have been closing across the country,” the institute states in a briefing paper released Thursday.
In 2015, 49 percent of four-year public colleges provided campus child care. That figure is down from the 55 percent that provided campus child care a decade ago, the paper states. The share of two-year colleges with campus child care declined more sharply, the paper states, from 53 percent in the 2003-04 school year to 44 percent in 2015.
College mothers are disproportionately women of color, according to the institute, which found that nearly half of all Black women, one-third of Hispanic women, and two-fifths of Native American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander women are student mothers.
Providing child care for student mothers increases their likelihood of completing their degrees, the institute states, citing research that shows parents who used child care were nearly three times more likely to graduate from a community college or pursue a bachelor’s degree.
