Resources

Food Security

• Important Update re: the infant formula shortage for PA parents. Our partners at DHS shared this resource from Philadelphia DOH and this resource from the PA Dept of Health. The PAWIC site also includes contact information for local WIC offices. Below is a high level summary of current provisions in place to ease access to formula for WIC participants, as shared by PA DOH with DHS.

• The PA Department of Health has granted waivers to allow maximum flexibility to provide many more options for WIC participants to obtain baby formula. These waivers include:

1. 1. 1. The Maximum Monthly Allowance - waiver allows recipients to exceed the Maximum Monthly Allowance and to issue multiple container sizes and physical forms for infants in Food Packages I and II.;

      2. Medical Documentation - a waiver to allow for the issuance of non contract brand infant formula without medical documentation for infants in Food Packages I and II; and

      3. Vendor Exchanges - a waiver to allow WIC authorized vendors to treat WIC participants like all other customers when they exchange recalled product at a store).

• Finally, the federal Department of Health and Human Services offers helpful information for families, including manufacturer hotlines and community resources.

• Leveraging Peer Relations: Our Student Navigator Network

  • This article posted by Swipe Out Hunger discusses a partnership approach “to collaboratively launch a one-on-one referral service that helps students apply for emergency financial assistance, find local support, navigate public benefits, and get timely information on policies, programs, and services that affect them.”

• Food Insecurity Addressed

  • This article discusses a new program implemented at The Colorado Mesa University to help students who are facing food insecurity by allowing students to utilize a new kind of meal plan.

• How to Form a Campus Basic Needs Task Force

  • “This guide provides insights and recommendations for practitioners on how to build and engage a basic needs task force to strengthen students’ ecosystem of supports and advance systemic change.”

Housing Security

• Insight Into Diversity April 2022 article: College Students Contend with Growing Housing Crisis

  • This article discusses: While the surge in prices is affecting many Americans, college students are finding it especially difficult to acquire affordable housing while pursuing a degree.

• Addressing Housing Insecurity and Living Costs in Higher Education

  • This Guidebook, co-authored with the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, reviews and explains strategies that institutions of higher education may consider to support their students with housing insecurity and other living costs, as well as examples of these strategies’ implementation.

• Barriers to Success: Housing Insecurity for U.S. College

  • This article describes evidence and context for decision makers considering issues related to housing for postsecondary students.

• PHA to Provide Housing for Community College of Philadelphia Students Who Are Housing Insecure, Involved in Foster Care System

  • This announcement discusses the new program the Philadelphia Housing Authority will implement for college students who experience housing insecurity. This is a great opportunity because for students where rent will be no more than 30% of their income. A similar policy can be adopted for parenting students.

Childcare Supports

• Grant Application (due July 11, 2022) Child Care Access Means Parents In School (CCAMPIS)

  • The FY 2022 competition for the CCAMPIS Program is open from May 20, 2022 to July 11, 2022. All applicants are required to submit an application online through Grants.gov. Grants.gov is a single access point for over 1,000 grant programs offered by federal and other grant-making agencies.

• Implication of Providing Childcare Assistance to Parents in Education and Training

  • This report's findings suggest that (1) additional federal investments in child care, (2) a focused effort to relax state eligibility restrictions for student parents including eliminating work requirements in states that require student parents to also work, and (3) steps to ensure that student parents can use their subsidies to purchase the various forms of child care that meets their needs are policy actions that could not only improve the employment and earnings of parents seeking further education and training, but could also reduce the poverty among their children.

• Leveraging Head Start for Student Parent Families

  • Innovative partnerships between Head Start and the higher education system is a promising strategy to bring together essential supports to meet the needs of student parents and set them up for long-term success. This briefing paper explores what this partnership might look like, and how federal and state policy could encourage greater support for student parents and their families through Head Start.

• Evaluating the Role of Campus Child Care in Student Parent Success

  • Drawing on interviews with campus child care directors and a review of data and relevant literature, this brief presents a snapshot of the availability and importance of campus child care services for student parent success. It concludes with recommendations to improve conditions for rigorous research on the role of campus child care in the outcomes of college students with children.

Financial Aid

• Five Lessons for Supporting Parenting Students with Emergency Aid

  • Emergency aid in the form of fast, flexible dollars delivered just in time can be a critical means of support to help parenting students and their children survive. This brief examines parenting students’ access to and use of that support during fall 2020. We draw on results from a survey that reached more than 195,000 students at 202 colleges and universities, including 32,000 parenting students who were parenting, offering primary care to, or acting as a guardian for at least one child.

• Colleges Can Make Life Easier for Parenting Students

  • This article from a former financial aid officer turned policy advocate outlines the childcare provision allowable for calculating parenting students Cost of Attendance, and the process by which institutions can provide and students can access aid for this crucial cost.

• Supporting Postsecondary Completion for TANF Recipients through Work-Study Programs

  • TANF participants in formal work-study programs enable postsecondary students to simultaneously pursue their studies and work part-time, typically in community service work, or in positions related to their field of study. Through work-study, TANF recipients may gain vital income support while working toward postsecondary credentials and obtain relevant work experience that can improve their chances of finding a job that provides economic stability. Also, workstudy programs can help state TANF agencies engage TANF recipients attending college in more activities that count toward required state work participation rates.

• Beyond the College Bill: The Hidden Hurdle of Indirect Expenses

  • This report examines how colleges calculate and communicate indirect expenses, how students struggle to understand and afford them, and the impact on students. The study draws on primary and secondary research, along with data analysis from over 800 colleges and the lived experiences of more than 150 students.

• Decoding the Cost of College: The case for transparent financial aid

  • Through a analysis of over 11,000 financial aid award letters, this report found that students who receive a Pell Grant are still left to cover a significant gap—an average of nearly $12,000. The gap persisted even when students made cost-saving decisions about where to attend (public versus private colleges and universities) or where to live (at home versus on campus). Given that financial aid falls short, clear and consistent communication on financial aid communication is critical.

Federal-level Data & Opportunities

• (Cross-Posting)Grant Application (due July 11, 2022) Child Care Access Means Parents In School (CCAMPIS)

  • The FY 2022 competition for the CCAMPIS Program is open from May 20, 2022 to July 11, 2022. All applicants are required to submit an application online through Grants.gov. Grants.gov is a single access point for over 1,000 grant programs offered by federal and other grant-making agencies.

• Supplemental Support for Colleges to Address Basic Needs from the American Rescue Plan

  • U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced new resource for colleges and universities to address the crisis of student basic needs insecurity, including a new $198 million grant under the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF), Supplemental Support under American Rescue Plan (SSARP) program. These funds will provide much needed support for institutions to help parenting students meet their basic needs and complete their degree or credential - deadline to apply April 8, 2022

State-level Data & Opportunities

• Gov Wolf Announces $1.7 Billion Plan to Secure a Brighter Pennsylvania for Generations

  • Details a plan for a better Pennsylvania in the future. Parts of this plan include the $500 million PA Opportunity Program and the $204 million Increased Property Relief for Low-Income Renters & Homeowners. These plans may help to better the lives of parenting students.

• Supporting Student Parent Recovery through State Policy

  • In this brief, it discusses how to actively implement plans for parenting students through state policy. For example, it asks for "Direct Federal Stimulus Funds Toward Student Parent–Serving Institutions" and "Investing in Post-Pandemic Child Care Access for Student Parents."

• Securing the Basic Needs of College Students in Greater Philadelphia During a Pandemic: A #RealCollegePHL Report

  • This report discusses Philadelphia college students' basic needs security during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, it discusses job loss, homelessness, and disparities in students’ needs and access to support.

• Roadmap for Human Services Alignment

  • This report from the American Public Human Services Association discusses a strategy for human service agency alignment for family supports which relies on four core practices: key human services executives & leaders buy-in, a cross-system data analysis, cross-system coordination & collaboration, and developing & deploying supportive tools.

Data Collection & Evidence on Parenting Students, Basic Needs and Two-Generational Impact for Postsecondary Success

• Monroe Community College for Higher Learning Advocates: Student Parents and the Opportunity to Support Multiple Generations

  • Marie Anne Demario describes her work as an Institutional Researcher at Monroe Community College and their systems to collects data on students’ marital and parental status each semester using a focused survey at course registration.

• Diverse Issues in Education Op-Ed: Oregon is finally counting student parents. Other states should follow.

  • Researcher and advocate Autumn Green details the work of parenting students and stakeholders to advance state and systems-level collection of data on parenting students.

• Students get better service at colleges with one-stop shops

  • Colleges whose leaders make the effort to combine service-oriented departments into one center tend to provide stronger service interactions across campus, as this report outlines.

• Ascend at Aspen Institute on Two-Generation Approach (2-Gen)

  • On this resource page, partners at Ascend explain the Two-generation (2Gen) approaches to build family well-being, including intentionally and simultaneously working with children and the adults in their lives together. "2Gen approaches center on the whole family to create a legacy of educational success and economic prosperity that passes from one generation to the next."

• Parenting While in College: Racial Disparities in Basic Needs Insecurity during the Pandemic

  • This brief reveals four untold lessons affecting parenting students, drawing on a nationwide survey of college students fielded fall 2020 and completed by 32,560 students who are parents. Through students’ reporting of their lived experience disaggregated by race and ethnicity, gender, and cohabitation status, it found staggering disparities in basic needs insecurity, and impacts on the children of parenting students.

• Parenting While In College: Basic Needs Insecurity Among Students With Children

  • This article provides statistics regarding basic needs insecurity among students including housing and food insecurity.

• Parents in College By the Numbers

  • This report provides statistics about parenting students, and gives insight to racial disparities within parenting students, like how black student parents end up taking on the most debt compared to other racial groups.

• Aspen Bibliography of Resources for Navigators

  • A Resource Guide for College/Career Navigators or Those Interested in Starting a Navigator Program Prepared by the Aspen Institute’s Workforce Strategies Initiative