Turning Law into Action: How California’s Public Institutions Are Advancing Student Parent Success
To support the implementation of the GAINS for Student Parents Act (AB 2458, the GAINS Act), The California Alliance for Student Parent Success (The Alliance) is spotlighting promising strategies, tools, and lessons from the field to help institutions meet the law’s requirements and advance systems change to better serve student parents.
What the GAINS Act Requires
Under the GAINS Act, the CCC and CSU must, and UC is requested to, adhere to several requirements:
- At the start of every fall and spring semester or quarter: Update student parent websites.
- By July 31, 2025: Develop segmental cost of attendance (COA) adjustment policies for student parents and share them with campuses
- By the start of the 2026–27 academic year:
- Implement COA adjustment policies;
- Collect student parent data and report them to the Chancellor’s or President’s Office; and
- Include a baseline student parent cost estimate in the campus net price calculator.
With 400,000 student parents enrolled in California’s public institutions, the GAINS Act presents a meaningful opportunity for institutions to improve how they support this often overlooked population. Enacted in 2024, this law seeks to expand student parents’ financial aid access and empower campuses to better identify and serve this population. But it is only as strong as its implementation. Its benefits will only reach the state’s student parents and the half a million children they are raising, not to mention the 3.9 million California parents who don’t yet have a college degree, if institutions put it into practice thoughtfully and fully.
So, The Alliance partnered with the California Community Colleges (CCC), the California State University (CSU), and the University of California (UC) on a series of webinars highlighting how campuses are translating this law into action. We’ve summarized the conversations so that you can glean the key takeaways and learn from the highlighted examples.
What Implementation Looks Like
CCC: Braiding Together Student Parent Supports
Student parents are concentrated in the community college system, where nearly one in five students is a parent, making GAINS Act implementation at the CCC especially critical. The CCC Chancellor’s Office recently released a GAINS Act implementation memo with instructions for making COA adjustments and meeting other provisions of the law. Campuses across the CCC are also meeting the moment by strengthening their student parent data collection and college affordability strategies. For example:
- Glendale Community College is automating the process of identifying student parents via their admissions applications. The basic needs center then connects identified students to a case manager who supports them in navigating the system.
- Gavilan College instituted a single application for all potential support programs to help ensure students access all the benefits available to them.
“This single application system allows students to be assessed for multiple programs and support services, resulting in them being able to stack resources, which means they’re having multiple layers of support, really guiding them through their academic journeys.” -Annette Gutierrez, Director of Basic Needs and Success, Gavilan College
UC: Improving Student Parent Financial Aid and Data Collection
From implementing state laws to improving campus practices, UC campuses are working to set student parents up for success. Campuses have made strides in improving student parent college affordability and leveraging data to better serve this population.
- UC Berkeley uses several strategies to improve student parents’ financial aid access, including a Parent Grant program for all student parents and a financial aid counselor who works specifically with student parents.
- UC Davis has been able to identify nearly four times as many student parents as it could in 2022, thanks to:
- The addition of a parenting status question in the UC admissions application,
- Student parent self-identification for priority registration through the campus’s Transfer and Reentry Center, and
- The implementation of a new student parent field in the student information system.
While California can only request UC’s compliance with state law, UC has taken the initiative to carry out policies that support student parents. These include the GAINS Act, as well as:
- AB 2881 (2022), which established priority registration for student parents; and
- AB 2033 (2024), which expanded the definition of basic needs to include child care and diapers, among other resources.
“We constantly strive to reduce barriers and improve how we serve [student parents].” -Nicole LaGrandeur, Associate Director of Financial Aid, UC Berkeley
CSU: Coordinating Systemwide Student Parent Resources
The CSU, with an estimated 9,000+ student parents, has taken up the mantle of institutionalizing strong, coordinated student parent support with the recent launch of its Pregnant and Parenting Students Initiative. This network builds upon the work of the Michelson 20MM Foundation’s former CSU Student Parent Network by establishing a systemwide task force. This body’s initial goals are to:
- Evaluate resources for student parents across the CSU;
- Compile a comprehensive toolkit of student parent resources; and, ultimately,
- Formalize services across the system.
And this is just the beginning.
“Our hope is to grow the Pregnant and Parenting Students Initiative to the point where the CSU system ensures not only that student parents’ voices are heard, but also that support services that reflect their ideas and needs are wholly implemented across the system.” -Emily Kass, Systemwide Manager of Basic Needs Initiatives, CSU Office of the Chancellor
Building on This Momentum
By implementing the GAINS Act well, institutions help to ensure student parents’ access to much-needed resources and support. The Alliance is glad to see these efforts moving forward across all three segments, and we are committed to helping them build on their momentum. To make it easier for institutions to meet these requirements, The Alliance is creating a set of tools, including:
- A GAINS Act implementation fact sheet,
- An inventory of student parent information by campus,
- A sample student parent web page and a toolkit institutions can use to update and improve their own, and
- A sample COA adjustment/budget appeal form.
We’re here to keep providing resources, amplifying campus innovations, and ensuring that reforms like the GAINS Act lay the groundwork for a more responsive and equitable system—one that truly reflects the realities and strengths of today’s students.
If you have any questions or want to connect, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at
