{"id":6864,"date":"2025-03-03T16:39:41","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T16:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=6864"},"modified":"2025-03-03T16:39:41","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T16:39:41","slug":"black-student-parents-face-barriers-to-child-care-at-community-colleges-joint-center-report-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=6864","title":{"rendered":"Black Student Parents Face Barriers to Child Care at Community Colleges, Joint Center Report Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0<span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/author\/staceybrown\/\">Stacy M. Brown<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, widely known as America\u2019s Black think tank, released an issue brief titled\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/jointcenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Black-Student-Parents-Access-to-Affordable-Child-Care-Support-at-Community-Colleges.pdf\">\u201cBlack Student Parents\u2019 Access to Affordable Child Care Support at Community Colleges<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 13-page brief examines the limited access to the federal Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program among community colleges with at least 40% Black enrollment. It offers legislative recommendations to strengthen the program, particularly as Congress considers reauthorizing the Higher Education Act.<\/p>\n<p>Black college students are disproportionately parents. According to the report, 36%\u00a0 of Black community college students and 40% of Black women in college are raising children. Black single mothers make up 30% of all undergraduate single mothers, with nearly 70% being first-generation college students. Despite these numbers, community colleges with substantial Black student populations are underrepresented in the CCAMPIS program.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-1 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-caf9af3267-0\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>From 2017 to 2022, between 5% and 7% of community college CCAMPIS recipients had at least 40% Black enrollment, far below the 13% of community colleges that meet this threshold nationally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReceiving access to higher education can significantly increase income, skill development, and employment opportunities,\u201d said Justin Nalley, co-author and senior policy analyst at the Joint Center. \u201cBut the costs of pursuing a degree and securing child care remain particularly burdensome for Black student parents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The CCAMPIS program provides funding to colleges to subsidize child care costs for Pell Grant-eligible students, support campus or community-based child care, and offers student support services such as financial and career counseling. While federal appropriations for the program have grown from $15 million in 2017-18 to $75 million in 2023-24, the Joint Center recommends increasing that funding. The Senate Appropriations Committee has proposed an $80 million budget for the 2025-26 academic year, but some experts suggest that $250 million annually is necessary to meet demand fully.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Gabrielle Smith Finnie, co-author and workforce policy analyst at the Joint Center, said the program can improve educational outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBlack student parents account for 30% of undergraduate student parents, yet they represent only 15% of CCAMPIS participants,\u201d she said. \u201cStrengthening CCAMPIS can enhance retention and completion rates for Black student parents and contribute to overall economic growth.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-2 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-2bd992b9b0-0\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The report\u2019s policy recommendations include increasing CCAMPIS appropriations to cover out-of-pocket child care costs fully, collecting comprehensive data on students\u2019 parenting status, and publicly releasing racially disaggregated performance reports. Another proposal calls for an equity analysis of CCAMPIS awardees to ensure fair distribution of grants to community colleges serving significant Black student populations.<\/p>\n<p>Financial hurdles remain steep. Black student parents borrow an average of $18,100 for college, compared to $13,500 among all students. With median household incomes for Black community college students at $29,021 \u2014 less than half that of white students \u2014 many parents are forced to choose between education and supporting their families.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn average, a student parent must work 30 to 90 hours a week to cover tuition and child care costs at public colleges,\u201d Nalley noted.<\/p>\n<p>The issue brief also highlights declining access to on-campus child care, which dropped from 58% of public community colleges in 2004 to 41% in 2019. Without affordable options, Black student parents \u2014 particularly fathers, 67% of whom attend schools without on-campus child care \u2014 face added challenges.<\/p>\n<p>As Congress considers reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, advocates stress that now is the time to act.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-3 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-dc2e0e383b-0\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cImproving CCAMPIS is essential for ensuring Black student parents are not left behind,\u201d Finnie said. \u201cThese investments in education and child care are investments in our economy and our future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>For more information, visit the Joint Center\u2019s website at\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jointcenter.org\/\"><em>jointcenter.org.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source: Published without changes from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/black-student-parents-affordable-child-care\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Washington Informer Newspaper<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0Stacy M. Brown The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, widely known as America\u2019s Black think tank,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6865,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regular-column"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6866,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6864\/revisions\/6866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}