Making the Invisible Visible: Taking Stock of How the California State University Collects and Uses Data About Parenting Students

Parenting students are neither a small fraction of our state’s undergraduates nor a niche, special interest group—and that’s very much true at the California State University (CSU). The fact that the majority of this population are students of color, women, and/or first-generation college students means that ensuring parenting students have the support to attain their degree is both an equity imperative and a necessity if the state wishes to build the skilled workforce needed to cultivate a thriving economy. Yet in the CSU, parenting students are too often rendered nearly invisible because neither individual colleges nor the systems as a whole systematically collects data on parenting student demographics, experiences, and outcomes. “Making the Invisible Visible: Taking Stock of How the California State University Collects and Uses Data About Parenting Students” finds a growing recognition of the importance of data to parenting student success, as well as many remaining barriers and much progress to be made. Those findings are paired with promising campus practices and specific recommendations for CSU campuses, the Chancellor’s Office, and higher education policymakers.

We hosted an accompanying webinar to share key findings from this report and our other new publication on October 1, 2024. Inside Higher Ed published an article that also discussed highlights from these two reports on October 9, 2024.