Methodology and Overview of State Aid and Public Benefits Programs

This analysis builds on previous work that highlights how state financial aid and public benefit policies can include more adult students.¹ We also know from previous research that program design matters for college access, the types of institutions students attend, and for student retention and completion.² Using a variety of data sources and combining qualitative and quantitative methods, we examine the intersection of these supports for older students and student parents in four states—Colorado, Missouri, North Carolina, and Texas.

We use state-representative data from the 2017–18 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, Administrative Collection (NPSAS:18-AC), a survey run by the U.S. Department of Education, to establish patterns in enrollment, financial need, and aid access for these students. We also examine public benefit eligibility rules for these populations; and we incorporate older student and student parent voices from a series of focus groups we conducted in 2022 to highlight students’ awareness of these resources and their ability to access them.

The NPSAS:18-AC data have several limitations. The dataset only includes information from college administrative data and does not contain data from a student survey, through which some student parents self-identify. (Previous iterations of NPSAS have included both.) In addition, we define student parents in this analysis as those with dependent children, which could exclude some parents without primary caregiving or financial responsibility for their child or children. As a result, this dataset and our analysis likely undercounts students with dependent children. In addition, an irregularity with some of the North Carolina data in NPSAS:18-AC means we cannot analyze North Carolina community college students’ grant aid or expected family contributions. (See Appendix A for more information about the data and methods used in this report.)

In 2017–18, more than half of financial aid for undergraduates came from federal sources, including federal student loans and Pell Grants.³ Slightly more than one-quarter came from grants and scholarships that colleges award, which have been increasing as a share of aid. While state grant aid makes up less than a quarter of the college financial aid pie, it is an important source of funds, especially for students with unmet need—the amount of college cost that is left to be paid after other financial aid is awarded.

States contribute to student financial aid packages with an array of programs, each with its own set of eligibility criteria—based on need, merit, or other factors—and target population. In 2017–18, states spent nearly $12 billion on grants to undergraduate students, three-fourths of which was need-based.⁴ The District of Columbia and all but three states offered some need-based financial aid programs, while 23 states offered some grants based only on merit.⁵

Eligible students may also be able to access public benefits programs for additional financial and in-kind support. Public benefit programs are funded through a mixture of state and federal dollars and many are administered by states, which often have significant discretion over how programs are run and what eligibility criteria are used.

In this analysis, we examine a subset of public benefit programs that have state requirements and are most available to students. These include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), cash assistance under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and child care subsidies through the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG).⁶

The federal government primarily funds TANF and CCDBG through block grants to states that they can use to support beneficiaries according to program rules.⁷ SNAP and Medicaid are entitlement programs, meaning that anyone who meets specific criteria is eligible.⁸ And CHIP funding is an entitlement to states, which receive allotments and can also access additional funding from the federal government if they experience shortfalls.⁹