Colleges Are Finally Counting Student Parents, but the Numbers Don't Tell the Whole Story

Most colleges can't say how many of their students are raising children. A wave of new federal and state policy is now pushing schools to change that and start counting.

Getting student parents into the data changes what a college can do for them, since a school can't build support around a group it can't measure. But counting is only where it starts. A statistic that says how many student parents are enrolled says little about how they're actually doing.

For ECPI University, this is already a familiar conversation. About one in four ECPI University students is a parent, higher than the national average of one in five.

Once these students are identified, however, a closer look at how they actually perform and progress in their degree tends to upend a few common assumptions about who student parents are and about what student success really looks like. This is the next necessary step in moving toward designing programs that work for them.

Making Student Parents Visible

National data can estimate the size of the student parent population, but they rarely tell an individual college how many of its own students are parents, which programs they're enrolled in, or how close they are to finishing their degree. These estimates can vary because surveys draw the line around who counts as a parent in different ways.

Lawmakers have started to fix this. In Congress, a proposed federal bill called the Understanding Student Parent Outcomes Act would expand how colleges and federal systems collect and report data on parenting students. It has yet to pass.

However, states have moved faster on this front. Several already require their public colleges to request this information. Virginia added its own law in April 2026, directing colleges and universities to ask students whether they are parents, while allowing students to choose whether to self-report their parental status.

All of this helps to get student parents onto the map. That's the right first step. But once they come into focus, the data begin to complicate some common assumptions about who these students are and how they're doing.

1. Identifying a Student Parent Tells You Who They Are

Knowing that a student is a parent captures just one fact about them and stops there. It fails to tell a more nuanced story about the individual.

The national data show just how much this population varies. As of 2020, the average age is 34. About three-quarters of student parents are women, more than half are students of color, and nearly half are the first in their families to attend college. Most have more than one child, and their youngest ranges from newborns to dependent adult children.

Those differences can shape the college experience in significant ways. The same label may describe two people at entirely different stages of their own lives and their children's lives.

It says nothing about whether a student parent is attending college for the first time or returning to higher education later in life. Nor does it capture the wide array of family circumstances that can exist at home.

2. More Responsibilities Mean Lower Grades

Raising a family while enrolled seems like it should cost a student academically. The demands are many, and they compete for the same time and attention that coursework and exams call for.

Yet, the findings don't support this assumption. Despite everything they balance, the American Council on Education reports that student parents typically earn grades similar to or better than their non-parenting peers.

These findings don't diminish the pressures that student parents face. Those are still very real. But they do draw an important distinction between life circumstances and academic performance.

For an adult weighing whether there's any room or any time left for a college degree, that's an important distinction. Student parents across the country are showing that significant responsibilities outside the classroom don't necessarily limit what they can accomplish inside it.

3. Good Grades Mean a Student Is on Track to Graduate

A strong transcript looks like proof that a student is on the path to graduation. For student parents, the relationship isn't always so straightforward.

Despite national research showing that student parents earn grades comparable to their non-parenting peers, they graduate at substantially lower rates, even when compared with students from similar backgrounds attending similar types of institutions.

A look at Virginia's public colleges shows that same disconnect: parenting students earn similar or better grades while being about twice as likely to leave before graduating.

The reasons behind this gap extend well beyond the classroom. They can include financial pressures, childcare, employment, and other responsibilities that can affect whether a student remains enrolled, regardless of how well they're doing academically.

How to Look Beyond the Numbers

Better data gives colleges a clearer picture of their student parent population. Making that information useful means considering how that context can inform the design of the college experience.

At ECPI University, designing around the realities of adult students has long been part of the approach, from accelerated degree paths to flexible scheduling. In 2000, ECPI Online launched to expand access to a busy adult population. Today, online programs still give students that flexibility without compromising on quality or engagement.

Other times, intentional design means reconsidering parts of college that are easy to take for granted. ECPI University students don't register for individual courses, for example. Instead, their academic path is mapped from the beginning. For adults already dealing with handfuls outside school, eliminating an unnecessary logistical hurdle can mean more than a simple convenience.

The same principle applies to military-connected students, many of whom are also parents navigating an unfamiliar transition to college life. Adjusting to this change requires a college that first understands their circumstances and then accounts for them in the educational experience.

After the Counting

The national push to identify student parents is good progress, and it's long overdue. For years, a notable population of students has been part of college without fully showing up in the numbers. That's finally changing.

What comes of it depends on the next step. The numbers of course matter, and they can point colleges in the right direction. But they still require context to mean something.

As higher education institutions get better at counting student parents, they need to begin to seek out the whole story and understand who these students really are. In doing so, they can better design for students who have been there all along.