From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Student Parents and Federal Student Aid Description: We discuss the federal programs available for college students who are raising children. Related GAO Work: GAO-19-522: Higher Education: More Information Could Help Student Parents Access Additional Federal Student Aid Released: September 2019 [ Background Music ] [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] One out of every five undergraduate students is a parent. And more than half of them are not completing their education with a degree. [ Matt Oldham: ] Welcome to GAO‘s Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. I'm Matt Oldham. According to Department of Education data, more than 20 percent of undergrad students were raising children in 2016. So imagine adding expenses like daycare on top of the cost of college. Well, with me is Melissa Emrey-Arras to talk about a GAO report on options for this group of students. Thanks for joining me, Melissa. [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] Happy to be here, Matt. [ Matt Oldham: ] So when we're talking about students who are raising children, are there any options out there for them to offset some of the extra costs they're facing? [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] There are. So just in general for folks to be aware, there are over 4 million undergraduate students who are college parents. So this is very different than sort of the typical view of a college student who might be, you know, 18 or 19 without kids. We're talking about people who are generally older, often in their early 30's who have children and are going to college. And they do have some options. And those options include federal programs. For example, there's a program called Child Care Access Means Parents in School. And it's got this catchy name, CCAMPIS for short. And what it does is it provides child care to students, either on campus or in their communities. However, it's a pretty small program. The program is -- is only targeted to a small number of schools. You have less than 100 schools who are receiving grants for these child care services. And just over 3,000 students are benefiting from this particular program. [ Matt Oldham: ] Other than the financial costs that students with children can see, are there any other effects this report talks about for students,are they graduating at the same rate as students without children? [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] Yeah, that's a great question, Matt. There are a lot of challenges that these students who are parents are facing. They're balancing going to class. Many of them are working full time, and they're trying to, you know, make it all work. And in terms of the outcomes, we found that 3 percent of student parents earned a bachelor's degree within six years -- and that's so much lower than the 37 percent of all undergraduate students. So they're really facing an uphill battle. [ Matt Oldham: ] And with this federal program, CCAMPIS, are we seeing different results for the students who use that benefit? [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] You know, Matt, I wish we knew the answer to that question. The problem is that the Department of Education, which runs this program, doesn't really know. They put together graduation rates for students who participate, but the graduation rate calculations are so flawed that they don't really tell you what percentage of students are graduating. And so you don't really know. You don't really know if this program is making a difference in terms of helping these student parents graduate. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] So it sounds like there are problems with how the Department of Education measures graduation rates, and this makes it difficult to determine the program's effectiveness. So Melissa, does this report have any recommendations for education to improve things? [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] It does. So it -- it focuses on the -- the performance measures that the department calculates for this Child Care Access Means Parents in School Program. But it also focuses on another option that can help student parents with financial aid. So in the financial aid process, you know, students talk about their financial, you know, income, expenses, etc. to figure out how much aid is available to them. And one of the options that is available for them is to talk about their child care expenses so that they can potentially receive more federal student aid to cover their child care expenses. And the official term for this is a dependent care allowance. However, what we found was that not all the schools that are serving student parents are letting student parents even know that this exists. So we made a recommendation to the Department of Education to really encourage schools to put this information out there so that student parents are aware of it, and then they can make the decision. You know, some may choose to take out additional federal student loans to help pay for child care and others may choose not to. But either way, it's important we feel that student parents have information that this option exists. [ Matt Oldham: ] What's the bottom line? [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] I think the bottom line is that -- that student parents are struggling. And there are a lot of them. I mean, we're talking, like you said, one out of every five undergraduate students is a -- is a parent. And more than half of them are not completing their education with a degree. So that's troubling. And so we think more needs to be done to help student parents know, especially about this option for additional federal student aid to help them pay for child care. And we also think more needs to be done in terms of overseeing this Child Care Access Means Parents in School program so that you can really know is it making a difference in terms of helping students graduate. [ Matt Oldham: ] Melissa Emrey-Arras was talking about a GAO report looking at college students who raise children. Thank you for your time, Melissa. [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] Thank you, Matt. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts. For more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, visit us at gao.gov.