Caregiving duties could make parenting students more likely to withdraw from college, survey finds
Laura Spitalniak
September 10, 2025
Many of these students face significant hurdles to finishing their education, such as working 30 hours or more a week while juggling classes and childcare.
Dive Brief:
More than half of parenting students at community colleges, 56%, said they enrolled to change careers, according to a report released Wednesday by the Center for Community College Student Engagement. That’s compared to 33% of their nonparent peers.
But almost three-quarters of parenting students, 71%, said their caregiving duties were somewhat-to-very likely to cause them to withdraw from classes or drop out of college altogether, the report said.
CCCSE advised college leaders to better understand the motivations and needs of parenting students to offer them personalized support services, such as flexible class times, recorded lectures and career counseling services.
