News & Events
The State of Pregnant & Parenting Students in California (March 21, 2024, 11-12:15 pm PDT) webinar (free)-hosted by 20MM
The passage of AB 2881, authored by Assembly Member Marc Berman and co-sponsored by the Michelson Center for Public Policy, represents major progress toward serving over 480,000 student parents across California’s higher education systems. As a result of the bill, student parents can:
Easily view services available to them via the newly required student parent webpage, which is clearly visible and easily accessible from the homepage of their campus website.
Learn more about the California Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children through campus orientations, student portals, and basic needs centers.
Participate in priority registration if they have a dependent minor living with them.
Given that student parents are more likely to experience “time poverty,” a larger debt load, and employment demands, AB 2881 promises to be an important hand up for this often forgotten student population.
How is implementation of this consequential policy going across California? How have decisions been made on what priority registration looks like? Has AB 2881 sparked a movement toward improved data collection on student parents across the states’s higher education systems?
Join 20MM on March 21, 2024, as they consider lessons learned and highlight bright spots on the roll out of AB 2881. LINK to registration.
Raising Up Trailer Drop (full series launches Mother's Day)
Check out a new 5-part short film series (Raising Up) elevating the narratives of student parents and the innovative leaders creating generational impact. Produced by Three Frame Media.
Trailer is ~90 seconds.
LINK (for the trailer and sign up for updates)
Premiere Details:
Tues, May 14 at Landmark E Street Cinemas
555 11th St NW, Washington, DC 20004
6pm - Red Carpet Arrivals
6:30pm - 8:30pm Screening followed by Panel Discussion
California Student Parent Alliance Advisory Board Meeting, March 5, 2024, Los Angeles
The California Alliance for Student Parent Alliance advisory board met in Los Angeles on Tuesday March 6, 2024.
Dr. Tina Cheuk is part of this advisory board.
COVID Caregiving, presented by Southwestern Law Review (October 6, 2023, 12:30 pm PDT)
Join us Fri 10/6 (12:30 pm PDT), hosted by Southwestern Law Review where Maya Valree & Dr. Tina Cheuk will get to share our new article: Impact of the COVID19 Care Crisis for Student Parents in Higher Ed. We will be joined by authors in this themed issue (out Dec 2023).
Learn more here.
Cal Poly-SLO awarded $60K (over 2 years) to be part of a Data-to-Action Campaign for Parenting Students, College Community of Practice (organized by the Urban Institute). Oct 2023
As a member of the College Community of Practice, our Cal Poly SLO team will refine existing efforts to (1) collect data that flag parenting and single mother students in college data systems and (2) use those data to support student parent needs.
The lessons from this opportunity will inform promising practices for other colleges, college systems, and governments to count, understand, and support parenting students, especially those who are single mothers.
Learn more here.
Forging Equitable Futures for Student Parents: A Statewide Summit, organized by Michelson 20MM Foundation (Sept 14-15, 2023, Los Angeles)
"The two-day event was a transformative convening fueled by the groundswell in California in support of student parents’ success. Attendees included advocates, practitioners, philanthropists, systems leaders, student parents, and allies from all across the state as we learned about evidence-based examples of success efforts and forged connections to sustain this growing movement." Read more here.
SPACE: Student Parent Access & Community Empowerment (a proposal in review, submitted to Ascend at the Aspen Institute. (Sept 8, 2023)
Student Parent Access and Community Empowerment (SPACE) exists to educate, empower, and advocate for students with dependents at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) through targeted paired mentoring and community building programming. SPACE aims to invest in parenting students—a majority of whom enter Cal Poly as transfer students from our two feeder community colleges, so that they are well prepared to succeed both academically and into the workforce after graduation. Figuratively and literally, we want student parents and their children to “take up space,” shine like stars, and thrive on our campus so that they no longer feel invisible and be forced to assimilate to the normative culture of Cal Poly’s college campus.
Ascend at the Aspen Institute (DC convening): Collaborative Action for Student Parents
Student Parent Joy Director Dr. Tina Cheuk will be attending this event in DC on May 17-19, 2023 hosted by Ascend at the Aspen Institute.
Webinar: Pregnant and Parenting Students Belonging and Thriving Framework, hosted by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) (5/10/23)
College success for pregnant and parenting students has important implications for racial, ethnic, and economic equity in higher education. Among students of color, one in three black students, one in three Native American students, and one in five Latinx students are parents. There is not a more opportune time as the visibility of care work has been propelled to the foreground during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pregnant and Parenting Students Belonging and Thriving Framework aims to ensure that students enrolled in higher educational institutions are healthy places where student parents and their children belong and thrive. This framework aims to address root issues of the disparate and fragmented range of current practices and policies that have been inadequate in serving this unseen and often invisibilized student population.
Rather than starting at the organizational spaces of higher ed itself — this framework embraces the wholeness and complexity of student parent life, moving away from the traditional bifurcated academic vs. student affairs approach that is predominant in higher ed spaces. This webinar will discuss how this tool, organized around five sustainable foci (i.e., community building, healing, self-determination, mutual power, and shared access to opportunities) can be useful in transforming the educational and life experiences for pregnant and parenting students who have been historically and systematically marginalized in higher educational spaces.
To learn more and register for the free webinar on May 10, 2023 from 11-12 pm PDT: LINK
Presenters include Dr. Tina Cheuk and Maya Valree (Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo)
NEW: PDF of our presentation, Updated May 10, 2023
Guidance from the Cal State Chancellor's Office (Posted Feb 21, 2023)
NEW guidance from the Cal State Chancellor's Office.
Highlights include the inclusion of student parents in the priority registration process:
"Students with a dependent child or children younger than the age of 18 years of age who will receive more than half of their support from that student per AB 2881."
***
Guidance
"Based on the March 2021 report cited in AB 2881 from Wheelhouse at the University of California Davis, the CSU is anticipating that at least 13.4% of its student population systemwide will meet the criteria for priority registration as a student parent . Translated into headcount based on fall 2022 enrollment data, that is approximately 61,371 students. It would create undue burden on staff either in the Basic Needs and Housing departments and/or Registrar's offices to verify students' tax returns and/or birth certificates of their child or children individually for this volume of students. In addition, we do not want to create additional administrative barriers to students per Graduation Initiative 2025 Equity Priority 4. Therefore, "self-certification" is an approved method for verifying student parent status.
In order to support campuses with implementation of AB 2881, CMS will deliver a PeopleSoft Campus Solutions modification that will allow student parents to self-certify and provide the age of their youngest dependent at the time of certification. If a campus chooses to manually verify student parents and require students to submit valid documentation, they may elect to do so. An administrative manual method for certification will also be provided, along with a process to remove student parent status once the youngest child reaches the age of 18."
LINK to full guidance (1 pager).
Posted 2/21/23.
Webinar: Supporting parenting students: Recommendations for Implementing #AB2881 (3/8/23)
Cross-posting: Join the Michelson 20MM Foundation as they uplift and share emerging best practices for AB 2881 implementation throughout California in support of pregnant and parenting students.
The new law requires colleges and universities in California to provide priority registration for student parents by July 2023, and to notify them of resources and supports critical to their success by February 2023. This law is the first of its kind in the nation and represents a major victory for student parents. The Michelson Center for Public Policy was proud to co-sponsor AB 2881, which will remove barriers that inhibit academic success and degree attainment for student parents at California’s community colleges, CSUs, and UCs, as well as bring greater attention to their needs.
Resources from the webinar:
Full recording: YouTube channel
Links and resources shared during the event
Updated 3/9/23.
Webinar: Urban Institute-Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Students: (3/7/23)
Cross-posting: National Student-Parent Action through Research Knowledge (SPARK) Launch Event
Join the Urban Institute for the launch of the national Student-Parent Action through Research Knowledge (SPARK) Collaborative, a knowledge-driven movement for pregnant and parenting students.
Resources from the webinar including the recording from the event: LINK
Posted 3/10/23.
Webinar: The Ohio State University ACCESS Collaborative Program: (2/15/23)
Cross-posting: The Ohio State / ACCESS Collaborative Community Chats (Feb 2023)
The Ohio State University ACCESS Collaborative Program is continuing conversations focused on the support of parenting students and their families. Dr. Theresa Anderson, Urban Institute/University of Michigan and Dr. Autumn Green, Urban Institute/University of Michigan will preview and discuss the Student-Parent Families at the Center Framework and Roadmap for Change to Support Pregnant and Parenting Students
Wednesday, February 15, 2023 | 2:00 p.m. - 3:15 p.m EDT
To learn more and register for the free webinar on Feb 15, 2023 from 11-12:15 PDT: LINK
Posted 2/13/23.
AB-2881 Student Parent Webpage Sample Language (Resource toolkit). (updated 2/13/23)
Check out this Toolkit (5-page word doc) and their webpage of implementation tools for AB2881 developed by The Pregnant Scholar team. It's organized into three sections: 1. Resources required by law; 2. Additional support services (reflective of many of the services listed in the Pregnant and Parenting Students Belonging and Thriving Framework); and 3. Additional assistance (communications tools and institutional policy supports / models).
For the most up-to-date resources from The Pregnant Scholar, please go to their home page.
Updated 2/13/23.
Assembly Bill 2881 signed by CA Governor. (9/30/22).
The full Assembly Bill #2881 Public postsecondary education: students with dependent children, is available here.