作者：辛西娅·休伯特

2022年10月5日

In 2017, about 12% of 萨克拉门托 State’s students were parents. 新数据显示，仅仅五年后，这一比例就飙升至30%。

在抚养孩子的同时获得学位的道路是漫长而艰难的。 研究表明，有孩子的学生比没有孩子的学生更不可能从大学毕业。 他们面临的最大障碍之一是儿童保育的成本和可用性。

美国教育部提供的190万美元赠款将使Sac州立大学在未来四年继续减轻数十名学生家长的负担。 The University’s 家长及家庭计划 will use the funding to help pay for child care for low-income students who are raising children.

“This is a crucial resource that helps student-parents stay in school and graduate,” said program director Haley Myers Dillon, who documented the dramatic increase in student-parents at the University.

Last year, all 34 囊状态 students who received grants from the federal 儿童看护意味着父母在学校 program either graduated or continued pursuing their degrees, Myers Dillon said. All 20 of those surveyed about the program in January said the grant helped them stay enrolled, and they all rated the grant as “very important” in helping them earn their degrees. 有15人说，如果没有这种支持，他们将无法进入萨克州立大学。

The grant money subsidizes or fully funds day care at licensed facilities in the 萨克拉门托 area, including the ASI Children’s Center on campus. 由于孩子在日托所，学生家长有更多的时间上课、学习、获得辅导或建议，或者为他们的学位和职业而努力。

受访者表示，这些资助帮助他们减轻了压力和经济压力，他们对此深表感谢。

“The grant was instrumental in allowing me to get my degree, with honors,” one said.

“This is an amazing program,” said another. It “has helped give my daughter and I a better relationship, because I can focus on her during our time together.”

米凯拉·黄（Mikaela Huang） 2018年在萨克州立大学（囊状态）入学时，她的儿子爱德华多（Edoardo）才3岁。她说，她收到的托儿补助帮助她成为一名成功的单身母亲和学生。 此后，她获得了英语专业的本科和研究生学位。

She used money from the 家长及家庭计划 to place Edoardo in the ASI Children’s Center, freeing time for classes and studying. 这样的安排也让她可以在工作间隙探望儿子。

Without the grants, “I would maybe have been able to take one or two classes a semester,” Huang said. Instead, she finished her undergraduate degree in four years and her master’s degree in two, graduating last semester.

现在，她在萨克州立大学教授写作，并在加州大学戴维斯分校担任行政助理。

“This program is great,” Huang said. “I don’t think most people understand how expensive child care can be. 补助金确实为有孩子的学生提供了公平的竞争环境。 It’s really important.”

迈尔斯·狄龙说，萨克州立大学是科罗拉多州立大学唯一一个专门为有孩子的学生提供服务的校园。 家长和家庭项目也为萨克州立大学学生的家长和监护人提供服务。

除了资助儿童保育之外，该项目还帮助学生家长与同伴导师、学术支持和其他资源建立联系。

“Our goal is to help them clear administrative barriers so that they can remain in school and graduate,” Myers Dillon said, noting that the program has had contact with about 4,000 of 囊状态’s 9,430 student-parents last year.

迈尔斯·狄龙说，她不确定为什么学生家长的数量会急剧增加。 她说，这一增长的部分原因可能是网络课程的增加，这让一些学生家长在上课上有了更大的灵活性。 这也可能与疫情最严重时期不稳定的经济状况有关，当时许多人失去了服务业的工作，转而上了大学。

迈尔斯·狄龙正在科罗拉多州立大学系统中收集数据，以证明学生家长需要更多的资金和服务。 她说，“父母和家庭项目”几乎完全依靠拨款，而对服务的需求总是超过供应。

“One in three of our students at 囊状态 is a parent,” she said. “Counting them and establishing quantitative metrics for the whole CSU system is the most effective way to make a case for more resources.”