Notes

This section of 'Notes' will be news, research/policy articles, bills, and ideas that our team is following in support of and aligned to our vision at Student Parent Joy.

Blog Post (Feb 17, 2026). Reflections from Jan 2026 Forward With Families Event hosted by Ascend at the Aspen Institute.

Changing the Narrative to Support Student Parents (crossed posted on LinkedIn)

I recently was part of an Ascend conversation on public mindset and economic security that reinforced something many of us working in higher education already feel: data alone doesn’t move policy, narratives do. As we think about how to better support pregnant and parenting students, especially within public higher ed systems like the Cal States, the conversation surfaced key insights for me as a faculty member, researcher, and advocate.

1. Skepticism Is the Starting Point (for voters/electorate/public)

Right now, the dominant public mood is economic anxiety. Rising costs, affordability pressures, and a general sense that “the system is too broken to fix” shape how people hear new policy ideas.

Two powerful undercurrents:

Fatalism: the belief that meaningful change isn’t possible.
Otherism: a zero-sum mindset where helping one group means taking from another.

That means even well-designed supports for student parents can be misinterpreted if they’re framed narrowly or too abstractly.

2. Economic Security Must Be Concrete

“Affordability” is too vague. People connect to specifics: childcare costs, groceries, rent, time to work, the ability to save.

Support for student parents resonates most when it’s framed as:

Increasing economic stability now,
Strengthening workforce readiness,
Improving outcomes for children and communities.

Inclusive framing matters. People respond more positively to solutions that strengthen families and communities broadly, rather than programs described as benefiting a narrow group, even when targeted support is necessary in practice.

3. The Future of Children Is a Unifying Value

Across audiences, one theme consistently cuts through polarization: a desire for a better future for children.

Positioning supports for parenting students as investments in children’s long-term well-being, and in the state’s economic future, it shifts the conversation from scarcity to shared benefit.

Parents and caregivers also carry significant moral authority. Mobilizing their voices and experiences can reshape debates that feel abstract or overly technical.

4. Data Works Best When Paired With Story

Research in cognitive science confirms what many advocates know intuitively: emotion and values set the frame; data reinforces it.

That means:

Leading with shared values.
Showing proof of what works.
Highlighting success stories, not just gaps and deficits.
Talking about solutions we build with families, not for them.

When data demonstrates pragmatic, local impact AND is connected to lived experience of parenting students, it counters fatalism and builds belief that change is possible.

If we want to improve outcomes for pregnant and parenting students, we have to do more than design effective programs. We have to shape the narrative around why this work matters, not just for student parents, but for our campuses, our communities, and our collective future. Supporting student parents isn’t a niche issue. It’s an economic strategy. It’s a children’s issue. And ultimately, it’s about what kind of state and society we want to build together.

Video of the workshop (~1 hr): LINK

Cal State Apply (Financial and Parental Information)

The screenshot (pulled in Feb 2026) shows the location in Cal State Apply where applicants are asked about dependent children. "you have or will have children or dependents who will receive more than half of their support from you between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027.

Independent: Household Size

"Total size of your household in 2024, be sure to include yourself, spouse and all dependents."

"Number of dependent children living with you in 2024"

"Do you currently have a child or children under the age of 18 who receive(s) more than half of their support from you?"

Mobilizing for CSU Strategic Planning (fall 2024-into 2025)

As a community, we must consider how to engage in the system-wide strategic planning for the next three years. "We already know the destination – to serve as the national model for educating America’s new majority, comprised of first-generation students, students of color, low-income students and adults seeking a brighter future" (for their families). The bold in parenthesis is our advocacy position in moving our system to a more inclusive model toward family-serving institutions. In the upcoming weeks, we will be putting out a toolkit for supporters to engage with the system so that our message is aligned to the goals of "adults seeking brighter future for their families" in the Cal State system. https://csustrategicplan.mysocialpinpoint.com/

Title IX: Sample email to employees (for students who are pregnant or have pregnancy-related conditions).

Notes on sample email related to new responsibilities for all CSU employees under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX). Below is the text sent out to Cal Poly employees (Oct 23, 2024):

What is Required of All Employees?

In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Education released updated Title IX regulations that are effective beginning August 1, 2024. Under these regulations, when any student or a person who has a legal right to act on behalf of the student, discloses pregnancy or a related condition to any employee, the employee must do the following:

1. Promptly provide the student with the Title IX Coordinator’s contact information.

2. Let the student know the Title IX Coordinator can coordinate specific actions to prevent sex discrimination and ensure the student’s equal access to Cal Poly’s programs and activities.

To fulfill this requirement, below is sample language you can use to send an email to the student:

Thank you for sharing with me that you are pregnant (or have a pregnancy-related condition). I wanted to make sure you know that Kaitlyn Blakey, our campus Title IX Coordinator, can be reached at kblakey@calpoly.edu, crco@calpoly.edu, or 805-756-6770. The Title IX Coordinator can coordinate specific actions to prevent sex discrimination and ensure you maintain equal access to programs and activities on our campus. In other words, your pregnancy or related condition should not be a barrier to you being able to continue to participate fully in all education programs and activities of our campus. You can find more information about your pregnancy and pregnancy-related condition rights at https://crco.calpoly.edu/content/title-ix.

As a CSU employee, if you ever feel as though you are being discriminated against or harassed because of your pregnancy or a pregnancy-related condition, you may also contact the Title IX Coordinator to discuss your options for filing a complaint and actions that can be taken to stop the discrimination or harassment.

Additional Information About This New Requirement

· Employees are not required to, and should not, report the student’s pregnancy or related condition to the Title IX Coordinator.

· However, if a student or employee discloses that they are actively experiencing or already have faced discrimination or harassment because of their pregnancy, the employee should fulfill their duty to report under the Nondiscrimination Policy and inform the Title IX coordinator.

What Are Pregnancy and Related Conditions?

Pregnancy or related conditions means:

· Pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy or lactation;

· Medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy or lactation; or

· Recovery from pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation or related medical conditions.

Additional examples of medical conditions related to pregnancy: pregnancy-related illness (i.e., excessive morning sickness, fatigue, nausea, prenatal depression, etc.), miscarriage, IVF treatments, lactation-related conditions (i.e., mastitis), and treatment for postnatal depression (also called postpartum depression).

Termination of pregnancy includes miscarriage, abortion, medical abortion and stillbirth. Per California state law, medical abortions are provided at our campus health center.

SB521 CalWORKs: Pregnancy- or parenting-related accommodations

Our team is following SB 521, that "requires a “good cause” exemption from CalWORKs sanctions imposed on pregnant, parenting, and lactating students who are not being adequately accommodated under Title IX, and make revisions to the Cal-Learn program to allow parent teens to maintain their benefits in certain circumstances."

Bill summary LINK.

Primary Sponsor: CA Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D)

Headstart facilities on community college campuses (article from WashPost), March 14, 2023.

". . . partnership announced this week between the National Head Start Association and the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) to put more Head Start facilities on community college campuses . . . " To learn more, read the Washington Post article posted on March 14, 2023 (written by the Editorial Board).

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