When We Invest in Parenting Students, We Invest in Their Children’s Future as Well

By Amber Angel, ECMC Foundation Program Officer

Amber Angel, a previous student parent, leads the Parenting Student Success initiative for ECMC Foundation. This initiative makes philanthropic investments to better enable parenting students to realize their educational dreams and foster a brighter future for them and their children. Learn more about about the initiative here.

For millions of parents, back-to-school season goes far beyond daily kindergarten drop-offs, helping a preteen navigate middle school, or sitting down with a high schooler to start the college planning process. It often includes returning to class themselves while balancing work, caregiving, bills, their children’s school schedules, and the countless responsibilities that come with raising a family.

I know this very well because this was me.

Years ago, I started college as a single mother and first-generation student all while navigating homelessness and raising my daughters. Like many parenting students, I was determined to create a better future for my family, but determination alone could not remove the barriers in front of me. Every exam, every childcare challenge, and every financial setback carried implications not just for my own future, but for my kids’ as well.

Today, I lead a grantmaking portfolio at ECMC Foundation that focuses on supporting and ensuring the success of parenting students by partnering with colleges, nonprofits, researchers, policymakers, and parenting students across the country. The goal of this initiative is to increase public and institutional investments in both programs and policies that lead to greater persistence, completion, and overall family well-being. What I've learned both personally and professionally is simple: when we invest in student parents, we invest in two generations at once.

Research has shown that when mothers from low-income backgrounds complete a college credential, the returns benefit later generations. Their children are 9% more likely to finish high school, 21% more likely to enroll in college, and 38% more likely to earn a college degree themselves. Lived experiences tell us that when children see postsecondary higher education attainment modeled at home, their educational aspirations and outcomes improve.

Parenting students represent nearly one in five undergraduates nationwide and are among the most motivated learners in higher education with comparable GPAs, on average, than non-parenting students. Yet they are often invisible in policies, data systems, and campus supports.

The ripple effect of educational opportunities rarely stops with one person. The daughter I dropped off at the on-campus childcare center at Los Angeles Valley College on the day I started college is now entering her senior year in high school. As she begins her own college application journey, I am reminded how far we’ve both come and how that is modeled for her younger sister.

As we reflect on, National Student Parent Month each September, it always feels like it arrives at a particularly meaningful moment. While many children are experiencing the excitement and uncertainty of a new school year, some of those children are also watching their own parents head back to campus. Others may be preparing to become college students themselves because they grew up seeing higher education pursued around the kitchen table during dinner and after bedtime. This year, one of these students is my daughter, Lennon.

That is what multi-generational success looks like.

As policymakers, employers, educators, and community leaders look for ways to strengthen economic mobility, supporting parenting students should be part of the conversation across sectors. Expanded childcare access, family-friendly campus practices, and enhanced benefits navigation informed by stronger data systems and fortified by cross-sector partnerships are not simply student support strategies, they are investments in families.

This back-to-school season, let's widen our view of who a college student is. Let's celebrate the parent attending a night class after putting a toddler to bed. The father completing coursework between shifts and struggling with the stigma of identifying himself as a student father. The mother walking across a graduation stage while her teenage children are cheering from the audience.

When a parenting student succeeds, the entire family moves forward.

And that is a success story worth celebrating!