Here at GCC, parenting students have higher course retention rates, success rates, persistence rates, and certificate completion rates, but significantly lower rates of completing Associates Degrees and of transferring within four years, when compared with non-parenting GCC students. All data is from GCC's Research and planning Department in 2022.

Fourteen percent of GCC students applying for FAFSA meet the restrictive, finance-based definition of parenting the FAFSA application uses. This percentage is well above the statewide average of 10%. (The California Community College Chancellor's Office does not currently identify parenting students through CCCApply, or through non-financial aid-based means.) 

Are you offering excused absences to your pregnant students, parenting students, and students who have experienced miscarriage or abortion?

According to Title IX, 

• “A school must excuse a student’s absences because of pregnancy or childbirth for as long as the student’s doctor deems the absences medically necessary.”
• “When the student returns to school, she must be reinstated to the status she held when the leave began, which should include giving her the opportunity to make up any work missed.”
• “Consider allowing excused absences for parenting students (both male and female) who need to take their children to doctors’ appointments or to take care of their sick children. By treating the absences as excused, you give these students the opportunity to make up the work they missed without being penalized, and you prevent them from falling behind.”

Learn more about your responsibilities as an instructor here.

The research on parenting students is overwhelming! Parenting students face systemic challenges which lead to widespread achievement gaps, homelessness, and hunger. 

Data from the Hope Center's "Parenting While In College: Basic Needs Insecurity Among Students With Children":

• Nationally, at least 1 in 5 college students is parenting a child.
• 53% of parenting college students were food-insecure in the last 30 days
• 68% of parenting college students were house-insecure in the previous year.
• 17% of parenting students were homeless in the previous year. 

We cannot understand the full picture of our Indigenous, American Indian, Black, and Latinx students until we overlay their identities as parents.

• "Students from minoritized backgrounds are more likely to be parenting while in college.
• 22% of Black and 17% of Hispanic or Latinx students were parenting, compared to 15% of White students.
• "When considering the intersection of race and gender, we find that Black female-identified students are particularly likely to be parenting in college"
• 29% of Black females at two-year colleges were parenting students.  

Parenting students face significant achievement gaps

• Only 37% of parenting students complete a degree or certificate within six years, compared with 59% of students without children.
• While about half of women earn a degree within six years of enrolling in college, only 8% of single mothers earn a degree in the same timeframe.  

Data from the UC Davis Wheelhouse Center's 2021 "A Portrait of Student Parents in the California Community Colleges":

• Nearly 1 in 10 students California community college students who applied for FAFSA is a parenting student.
• While in community college, student parents' education experiences differ from their non-parenting peers:
  • They faced greater financial need than non-parenting students.
  • The attempted and accumulated fewer credits per term.
  • They had slightly higher GPAs than non-parents in their first year.
  • They were less likely to enroll full-time, persist from year to year, and earn a degree or certificate. 

Dig in to more research here. 

The answer is yes! 

CAMPUS VISITORS AND MINORS ON CAMPUS

From Glendale Community College District Administrative Regulation 3825 

B. Non-Student Minors on Campus

1. Non-student minors under the direct supervision of an adult are permitted on college premises under the following conditions:

a. Attending college events designed for public viewing or participation.

b. Participating in college-approved events for which adult supervision is provided.

c. Accompanying adults for non-instructional or college business purposes (e.g. registration, fee payments).

d. Accompanying adults to instructional activities with the express permission of the instructor or the supervisor of the activity. Minors may not attend instructional activities if the instructor/supervisor does not grant permission.

2. Non-student minors on campus are here at the risk of the supervising adult who brings them. Supervising adults are expected to maintain control of their minors and ensure they abide by the Standards of Student Conduct at all times while they are on campus. Both the minor and their supervising adult shall be subject to disciplinary action for any disruption of college services or activities. Unsupervised minors shall be detained by College Police until the supervising adult can be located.

Also check out Glendale Community College Board Policy 3825 , CAMPUS VISITORS AND MINORS ON CAMPUS

Here are some recommendations written by GCC parenting students to their instructors:

• Be flexible with parenting students. Become a "master of paradox," defined by Kistner and Henderson as "maintaining a structured course while allowing for some flexibility."
• Have good listening skills. Let parenting students know you are open to hearing about their circumstances and problems, and that you're willing to work with them. 
• Add GCC's parenting student webpage to your syllabi, www.glendale.edu/students/parenting-students.
• Understand and implement Title IX as it relates to parenting students, and help your students learn about how Title IX can protect them. Add GCC's Title IX webpage to your syllabi, www.glendale.edu/students/student-services/parenting-students/title-ix.
• Timed online exams and quizzes often do not work for parenting students with children at home. Please consider using alternate methods to evaluate learning.  
• Allow students to bring children to class when families experience childcare emergencies. This is permitted by Admin Reg 3825.
• Create a safe space and sense of belonging for parenting students. Get to know them and to understand their challenges and behaviors.  
• Align GCC holidays and breaks with GUSD holidays and breaks. Parenting students often don't have childcare, miss class, don't have time to study, or miss out on time with their children because college breaks and local school district breaks are not aligned.  
• Don't make rules about whether children can be in Zoom boxes, or about whether students must stay in Zoom boxes. The safety and well being of their children is always a parenting student's number-one responsibility.