Cutting Barriers: Addressing the Challenges of Parenting Students in Cosmetology Programs

September is student parent month—an opportunity to celebrate and reflect upon the roughly one in five students in America’s postsecondary education system who are caring for children. Within cosmetology programs, that number jumps to one in three. New America's research has found that despite their overwhelming presence in the beauty education industry, parenting students are often overlooked and offered little support toward their cosmetology licensing journey. Beauty schools owe it to parenting students, and the next generation of potential cosmetologists, to address structural problems that hinder their pathways to success.

Our report, Cut Short: The Broken Promises of Cosmetology Education, featured diverse stories from cosmetology student parents who navigated parenting while working toward their career dreams. This piece is part of a series highlighting elements of our report’s findings. It discusses the unique challenges parenting students experience in cosmetology programs and how beauty schools can support their success.

Parenting students balance competing responsibilities like working part-time or full-time jobs, attending classes, completing assignments, all while caring for children. The data available on parenting students is limited because institutions fail to collect comprehensive data on this population. The data we have is based on a combination of institutional surveys and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and many students never complete the FAFSA. Limited data leaves schools and policymakers unaware of the full parenting student population and the targeted support they need.

With the data we can access, we know that parenting students come from diverse backgrounds and identities. A majority of parenting students are women and are more likely to be women of color, according to data from the SPARK Collaborative—an association of individuals and organizations committed to supporting parenting students. The average age of an undergraduate parenting student is 34, while the average age of a nonparenting student is 23, showing that the typical college student is not coming straight from high school.

Parenting students, on average, have young children who require child care. Almost half have children under the age of 6. Child care expenses continue to increase with the average annual cost per child being $13,128 in 2024, according to Child Care Aware analysis. Such mounting costs are burdensome for parenting students to afford and as a result, some parenting students make the difficult decision to stop out of school.

Moreover, in the 2019-2020 academic year, parenting students worked an average of 36 hours per week, compared with 29 hours per week for nonparenting students, according to SPARK Collaborative. Even with parenting students working lengthy hours, their one income is less likely to cover both their school expenses and child care costs. Only five percent of parenting students in the Trellis Strategies Student Financial Wellbeing Survey reported being able to afford their college costs using only their income and savings. Most parenting students rely on Pell and other grants, and some have to apply for student loans to finance their postsecondary education. Consequently, parenting students need greater support to navigate their unique challenges and succeed in school.

The path to cosmetology licensure begins when students enroll at a beauty school. Students often choose a beauty school based on their prominence and proximity to their homes, according to New America's focus groups. Each year, roughly 200,000 students enroll in more than 1,000 cosmetology schools that are eligible for federal financial aid. The vast majority of those institutions are for-profit beauty schools, according to an education working paper. One in five parenting students attend for-profit colleges, which across the board fall short in providing necessary support for students to stay enrolled and meet their basic needs.

The flexibility and class time options in beauty schools may look attractive to parenting students with demanding schedules, however, cosmetology program structures and licensure requirements are historically not designed in ways that benefit a parenting student. Once enrolled, cosmetology students spend several weeks learning from textbooks and classroom lectures on the basics of styling, safety, and sanitation. However, many cosmetology students enter school with some level of basic knowledge. Students in our focus groups reported that many of these lessons did not provide new information.

After several weeks spent in the classroom, students then move to what is referred to as “the floor,” which are beauty school-run salons, where students learn and practice services they might perform as a cosmetologist. Students are often not compensated, but sometimes receive client tips. For those who are pregnant, students in our focus groups shared that they had to advocate for necessary accommodations to ensure they receive breaks in between clients. This is problematic given that licensure requirements can be extensive. Students are expected to work 1,000 licensure hours in states like Texas and New York, and 1,800 hours in states like West Virginia, with a national average of 1,500 hours.

Moreover, the high program costs of cosmetology programs can be difficult for parenting students to afford among other expenses like child care, housing, food, and overly-priced hair kits. The average cost of a cosmetology program is about $15,000. To cover the cost of school, parenting students shared with us how they had to work additional jobs. One parenting student, for example, shared that she delivered Doordash orders while her daughter stayed with her father. That student also said she had to pull from her 401K to cover her school expenses and she “just kind of floated on that.” The case of this student choosing to sacrifice their future financial security to afford paying for school is not an isolated experience. Parenting students are willing to go lengths to both do well in school and provide for their families, even if their school does little to support them in return.

Cosmetology education should be a pathway to economic opportunity and career fulfillment for parenting students, but it is in need of critical reform. Below are recommendations that beauty schools can implement to improve parenting students’ academic experiences and outcomes.

1.Make school accommodations for pregnant and parenting students publicly available on school websites.

Some beauty schools may offer supportive resources and accommodations, but parenting students may not be aware of them. Schools should publicize pregnancy accommodations, lactation policies, and child care resources to help pregnant and parenting students know what support is available to them. With the various responsibilities and time poverty—the strain of available time to spend on school work— that parenting students face, public information on how beauty schools can support their pregnant and parenting students go a long way.

2. Enforce Title IX protections.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, or Title IX, is a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational programs. Schools are required under this law to provide pregnant and parenting students with accommodations necessary to ensure they have equal educational access. However, from student experiences reported in our focus groups, we know that not all beauty schools adhere to the required accommodations that pregnant and parenting students need. With extensive licensure hour requirements, pregnant students should be allowed more breaks between clients or be provided modified options to fulfill program necessities. Parenting students should be provided excused absences following childbirth, and lactation accommodations.

3.Collect data on pregnant and parenting students.

Better data on parenting students is the starting point to address their postsecondary education needs. Beauty schools can collect data on parenting students to better understand what supports will help their pathway to success. Data collection will reveal what gaps need to be addressed to improve parenting student retention and program completion rates.

As outlined, parenting students don't often feel like they have a viable path to a cosmetology credential. This parenting student in one of our focus groups summed it up best: “if you're in beauty school full time, you can't survive if you have a child and nobody to depend on,” but it doesn’t have to remain that way. Changes to industry practices could unlock the door that parenting students need to succeed and reach their cosmetology career goals.