This brief explores the types of institutions student parents attend and their enrollment patterns (e.g., full time or part time, online) compared with nonparenting students. We also present results by gender, and race/ethnicity to uncover potential inequities. Understanding of the types of institutions student parents attend and their enrollment patterns helps policymakers, researchers, and advocates identify disparities in access; provides insights for targeted policymaking at federal, state, and institutional levels; and informs tailored programs, support services, and academic offerings. We identified these patterns using the 2020 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study.

Key findings

• Community and technical colleges play an important role in serving student parents. Although nonparenting students also enroll in these colleges, the data suggest that student parents often use community and technical colleges as a substantial portion of their educational pathways, possibly because of factors such as cost, flexibility, and proximity.
• At the same time, student parents are not exclusively enrolled at community and technical colleges. Other institutions, particularly public baccalaureate colleges and universities and private nonprofit institutions, serve a substantial share of parenting students and could attract even more with additional commitments to and supports for student-parent success. Perhaps these colleges can draw lessons from the approaches (e.g., flexible, year-round enrollment opportunities) private for-profit institutions are taking to disproportionately attract student parents, while ensuring that student parents receive a high-quality educational experience.
• Further, student parents are also more likely to attend college part time and engage in online education compared with nonparenting students. Part-time enrollment and online education each offer flexibility beneficial particularly for student parents, who might have more complex schedules and responsibilities than nonparenting students. While recognizing the benefits of part-time and online enrollment for student parents, institutions should also be cognizant that enrolling only part time or online may not be the ideal educational experience for all student parents. Students enrolled in part-time and online programs have lower persistence and completion, on average (Berg, Causey, et al. 2024; Berg, Cohen, et al. 2024). Colleges should seek to make both in-person and online programs inclusive for parents.

This publication is part of a series that was a collaborative effort by researchers across the Urban Institute, Child Trends, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, and Skills and Training in Action Research (STAR) Fellows. For more information, visit https://studentparentaction.org/resources/data-insights.