For college students who are also parents, timely access to public human service and workforce programs—like food, housing, child care, health care, and cash assistance—can make the difference between stopping out or dropping out and completing a credential.
Federal agencies and legislators increasingly recognize the value of colleges collaborating with public human service and workforce programs to enhance program access, advance student success, and promote economic mobility. Sharing data in responsible ways can be one important element of this collaboration. Yet college and agency leaders still face questions around process design, institutional readiness, and protection of student and family privacy.
This brief offers practical guidance on how institutions can use information they already have on students to help connect parenting students with benefits. Requiring students to repeatedly provide the same data across agencies reflects an administrative burden that could be alleviated through coordinated data-sharing and streamlined organizational collaboration. With the right tools and safeguards, data can be a bridge to opportunity—helping student parents and others access the support they need to succeed while streamlining public programs.
This is the second in a series of three briefs available on the resource page Meeting Student Parents' Basic Needs.