Child Care Support Services Are an Overlooked Strategy for Re-Enrolling Adult Learners

There have been numerous efforts at both the institutional and state levels to re-enroll adult students who stopped out of college. And these efforts are needed. Approximately 36.8 million American adults between the ages of 18–64 have some college, no credentials (SCNC), presenting both a significant opportunity and challenge, particularly for community colleges. Among those who stopped out between January 2021 and July 2022, 51.9 percent re-enrolled in associate degree programs during the 2022–23 academic year.

States and colleges are developing targeted strategies to support adult students in re-enrolling, persisting, and ultimately earning a credential that leads to a good job. One often-overlooked approach, especially at community colleges, is expanding child care support services, which can play a crucial role in helping adult parenting students from re-enrollment through completion.

Evidence shows that parents need child care support to continue their education. According to a recent survey commissioned by New America, nearly 60 percent of community college stop-outs who cared for young children cited child care responsibilities as a reason for not re-enrolling in community college. Additionally, 55 percent reported that balancing coursework with child care needs prevented them from returning. Conversely, caregivers who remained enrolled were more likely to attend schools that offered financial and child care support services in various forms. Stop-outs also indicated that access to these services would encourage them to re-enroll. In fact, just over half of stop-out caregivers said they would likely return to college if they had access to affordable child care and drop-in care on campus.

A review of existing literature on strategies colleges and states are using to re-enroll stopped-out adults reveals several key approaches, including:

• financial incentives such as free college programs, debt forgiveness, and last-dollar grants;
• targeted marketing and outreach to raise awareness of available programs and resources;
• pre-enrollment advising from trained staff; and
• ongoing advising throughout a student’s college journey to support successful completion.

However, child care support services—even when they are available at some community colleges—are rarely advertised or included as a central strategy to assist adult students in re-enrolling.

Providing accessible, affordable, and high-quality child care support services can significantly help adult parenting students balance their educational goals with child care responsibilities. Beyond offering these services, institutions should also ensure their policies reflect a welcoming environment for students with children. Inclusive marketing and outreach efforts are essential in promoting college campuses as supportive spaces for parenting students. A study of adult students who re-enrolled in California colleges showed that students valued seeing themselves represented in marketing materials. To further support re-enrollment, institutions should prominently feature child care support services in their marketing efforts, such as in a dedicated landing page designed specifically for adult students with children.

Additionally, colleges should review institutional policies that may create barriers for student parents, such as restrictive “no kids on campus” policies. Instead, they should implement policies that foster a family-friendly campus culture, making higher education more accessible and supportive for adult students with children. The family friendly campus toolkit is an accessible resource for any college considering improving support and outcomes for parenting students.

New America interviewed parenting students who shared that securing child care is a constant source of stress, often causing them to slow down or abandon career aspirations. Moreover, survey data shows that stop-outs who cared for young children cited child care responsibilities as a reason for not re-enrolling. Community colleges focusing on re-enrolling adult learners should consider highlighting and/or improving their child care services as a key incentive to get adult students to re-enroll.