CSU Tests New Supports for Student Parents

Student parents often face challenges accessing college resources and participating fully in campus life while balancing classes, parenting and, in many cases, paid work. The California State University system is investing in a series of small, campus-designed projects aimed at addressing some of those barriers.

As part of the systemwide Pregnant and Parenting Students Initiative, 11 of CSU’s 22 campuses have been awarded $5,500 grants each to launch projects to strengthen belonging, expand access to resources and help student parents persist to graduation.

Funded by the Michelson 20MM Foundation and administered through the CSU Basic Needs Initiative, the one-time microgrants will support a range of projects during the 2026–27 academic year, including providing diapers and other basic supplies, installing changing tables in campus restrooms, expanding resource navigation, and hosting parent support groups.

Carolyn O’Keefe, CSU’s systemwide director of student wellness and basic needs, said the demographics of college students have shifted significantly, including across the CSU system, making it increasingly important for institutions to recognize and respond to their evolving needs.

“The initiative is really an opportunity for us, first and foremost, to bring awareness to the student parent population and to shine a little bit of light on their needs,” O’Keefe said.

“What we know from national data is that a parenting student is more likely to stop out than a nonparenting student, but that same data also shows us that they tend to achieve academically at a higher level,” she added. “You don’t want to see high-achieving students not be able to complete their degrees if we can do some adjustments on campus to help get them over that finish line.”

Different campus approaches: O’Keefe said the microgrants are intended not only to strengthen pregnant and parenting students’ sense of belonging and connection to their campuses, but also to inform systemwide strategies to better serve this population in the future. Nationwide, one in five undergraduate students is a parent or caregiver—which is similar to the CSU system, a  spokesperson said.

Some campuses are using the grants to address basic needs and connect student parents with resources. California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, will provide diapers, wipes, shoes and winter clothing to student families, while San José State University will expand parenting support through its food pantry and conduct a student-parent needs assessment. California State University, Long Beach, will distribute welcome kits for students with children up to age 8 through its new family resource center.

Other campuses are focusing on community and belonging. Sonoma State University will host recurring student-parent luncheons and a support group, while California State University, East Bay, and California State University, Fresno, are planning family-friendly gatherings. California State University, Northridge, will host a wellness event combining food access, resources, self-care and community building, while California State University, San Bernardino, will hold a family celebration during Student Parent Awareness Month.

Other projects focus on increasing the visibility of student parents and making campuses more family-friendly. San Diego State University will launch a student-parent storytelling campaign, while California State University, Stanislaus, will hold awareness and engagement programming throughout the academic year. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, will install six to eight changing tables in restrooms across high-traffic campus buildings.

O’Keefe said the $5,500 grants were designed to give campuses the flexibility to determine what kinds of support would be most useful for their own student-parent populations.

“We thought that being able to provide funding, albeit not ongoing funding, would allow folks to be able to do something on their campus so that other folks know more about this population,” O’Keefe said. “Our hope is that once there starts to be more of an awareness of the needs of this population, the campuses will be able to grow more support for these students.”

California State University, Stanislaus

Melissa Norris, a health educator at Cal State Fresno, said her university will use the microgrant to hold its first Parent Scholar Fall Harvest Festival, building on a smaller event held last year.

“Being a student parent is such a hidden identity,” Norris said, noting that the campus has roughly 2,000 student parents. “They don’t necessarily show up to class and disclose to the person next to them that they are raising kids at the same time as they’re going to school, and because of that, I think it can feel really isolating for them.

“One of the big things that we really realized is that we were not necessarily providing any core campus or community connection for our parent scholars in the fall,” she added. The university hosts a spring carnival for student parents and their children that draws strong participation, Norris said. “The fall harvest festival concept was how do we recreate what we’ve done successfully in the spring, but try to capture people in the fall semester so that they’re already connected to these resources.”

Shifting campus culture: Norris said supporting student parents also requires broader awareness among faculty, staff and students about the challenges they face.

“The more our population understands the unique challenges that are faced by our student parents, the better they're able to serve them,” Norris said. “There’s some culture shifts that we’re trying to really work towards, and we acknowledge that those are going to take a little bit longer, but they’re absolutely worthwhile for us to keep pushing forward to achieve.”

O’Keefe said CSU is still determining what supporting pregnant and parenting students should look like across a system of 22 campuses.

“It’s very broad in scope, what we’re trying to do here at the beginning,” O’Keefe said. “We’re still a bit in that exploration stage of ‘What can we really accomplish at a system level?’ and ‘What are individual campuses looking at as possibilities they can implement?’”

“But we ultimately want to start to break down and dismantle that stigma, and part of that is helping those students see that they’re not alone,” O’Keefe said.

(Updated 9/21 2:00 p.m. to correct the number of CSU campuses, from 23 to 22.)

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