These 7 states use data collection to help identify and serve student parents

September is National Student Parent Month, and North Carolina is home to 116,500 degree-seeking student parents according a state scan conducted by New America.

However, according to the national nonprofit research organization, that number is only an estimate of undergraduate and graduate students. Most states don’t require their public colleges and universities to uniformly track enrolled students’ parenting status.

As a result, state-level data often doesn’t capture where student parents are enrolled, what they’re studying, and how many complete their programs.

For postsecondary institutions hoping to support students who are also parents, identifying this student population is an important first step before the college can connect them with resources that can help students and their families thrive, such as childcare.

“When states don’t know where student parents are enrolled or what their outcomes are, they miss an opportunity not only to improve economic outcomes for student parents and their families, but also to improve their own states’ financial standing,” reads New America’s analysis of states’ student parent populations.

Seven states require public colleges and universities to collect data on student parent populations

Between 2021 and as recently as May 2026, seven states — California, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, Texas, and Virginia — have enacted legislation that requires public institutions of postsecondary education (institutions) to collect and report data on the institutions’ student parent population.

Michigan passed education appropriations legislation in 2020 that required public institutions to report information about student parents, including their number. However, legislation passed the following year dropped the requirement, per the Urban Institute and New America.

Read on for an overview of how each state mandates, defines, and collects student parent data.

California 

California’s Greater Accessibility, Information, Notice, and Support (GAINS) for Student Parents Act (Assembly Bill 2458), enacted in September 2024, requires all public community colleges and universities to establish a data field in each campuses’ data management information systems that identifies and collects student parent data.

The legislation defines a student parent as a student who has a child or children under 18 years of age who will receive more than half of their support from that student.

According to an implementation memo authored by the California Community Colleges system, campuses may identify student parents “using several methods.” The options the memo lists includes utilizing financial aid application forms such as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), campus-based applications, referrals from faculty and staff, or a self-certification document provided by the student. According to the memo, the process was to be in place by the 2026-27 academic year.

According to this GAINS Act implementation guide, created by advocacy group California Alliance for Student Parent Success, the state can only request the University of California’s compliance with the law, but the law requires California Community Colleges and California State University to comply.

The GAINS Act also requires institutions to report student parent data to their respective chancellor’s or president’s office for its inclusion in Cradle2Career (C2C), the state’s longitudinal education and workforce data system.

Collecting data on student parents is one of five requirements outlined in the legislation to improve student parents’ access to and completion of postsecondary education.

According to the California Alliance for Student Parent Success, the GAINS Act will “strengthen student parents’ connections to financial aid and basic needs resources, along with improving student parent data collection.”

Illinois

In Illinois, Public Act 102-0088, enacted in July 2021, directed the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), in consultation with the Illinois Community College Board, public institutions of higher education, and advocates to create a question or questions on the college’s forms “used by an institution on an annual basis to collect demographic data” that determines the parental status or legal guardian status of enrolled students.

The parenting status data collected must be disaggregated by all variables colleges normally collect, including gender, age, enrollment status, GPA, and type of credential sought. 

The legislation defines a student parent as the parent or legal guardian of a child who is under 18 years old.

According to the IBHE’s 2023-24 report on student parent data, IBHE chose to use students’ FAFSA forms as the main source of information to meet the legislation’s reporting requirements. According to the report, in the 2023-24 academic year, public universities were “required to provide IBHE with the Student-Parent and marital status information from the FAFSA at the student-level through IBHE’s Illinois Higher Education Information System (IHEIS) enrollment collection.”

The report also states that “IBHE follows the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) process for collection of single-parent status data that aligns with Perkins reporting purposes.”

The report acknowledges some of the limitations associated with using the FAFSA form, and outlines some of the other student demographics, such as age and part-time enrollment, that the state considers as “indicators of potential student parents.”

The legislation requires each institution to submit a data report to either the IBHE or to the ICCB, and each organization is required to make the data publicly available. 

You can view the Illinois Community College Board’s student parent data dashboard here, and all of the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s student parent reports here.

Maryland

The most recent of the seven states to pass student parent data collection legislation, Maryland enacted Senate Bill 420 in May 2026. According to the legislation, each postsecondary institution must place questions that identify if a student is a parent, the age of the student’s child(ren), the type of care the student provides, and whether the student is a single parent or shares parental responsibilities.

The questions will be placed on one or more of institution’s existing demographic data forms.

According to the legislation’s fiscal and policy note, the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) must adopt regulations to implement the bill, including the format and timeline for collecting and reporting data. The note also states that MHEC will develop parental status questions in consultation with public postsecondary institutions.

The legislation defines “pregnant and parenting student” as a student enrolled at a public institution of higher education who is pregnant, exercises care, custody, or control over a child of any age, or shares parental responsibilities with someone in the same household or a different household.

Institutions are to report data to MHEC, and, beginning in September 2027, MHEC will submit an annual report to Maryland’s Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, Senate Committee on Education, Energy, and the Environment, and House Appropriations Committee.

Minnesota

Per Minnesota’s House Bill 4024, enacted in May 2024, institutions of postsecondary education must have a process to collect the parenting status of each enrolled student in place by June 30, 2026, and Minnesota’s Office of Higher Education must establish a process for collecting this information from institutions by Nov. 30, 2026.

According to the legislation, the report must include summary demographic data, enrollment patterns, retention rates, completion rates, average cumulative debt at exit or graduation, and time to completion. Data must be disaggregated by institution, academic year, race and ethnicity, and gender.

The legislation defines a student parent as a student enrolled at an institution of higher education who is the parent or legal guardian of, or can claim as a dependent, a child under 18 years old.

Beginning in January 2028, Minnesota’s Office of Higher Education must submit an annual report to the chairs and ranking minority members of the state’s legislative committees that have jurisdiction over higher education and children, youth, and families.

The legislation also states that postsecondary institutions must designate at least one employee per institution to act as a “college navigator” for current and incoming students who are parenting students. 

According to the student-run nonprofit advocacy group Students United’s 2026 legislative agenda, much of the state’s existing student parent collection “stems from financial-aid categories, program intake forms, or Title IX compliance.”

Minnesota’s Office of Higher Education’s also administers the Student Parent Support Initiative, a competitive grant program funded by the state legislature in 2023 that provides funds to postsecondary institutions to develop campus-based supports and requires its grantees to “offer students an opportunity to self-identify as parents in annual demographic collection.”

Oregon

Oregon’s Senate Bill 564, enacted in May 2021, reads that the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission shall design, in consultation with postsecondary institutions, at least one question to be placed on at least one form used by public education institutions to collect demographic data by the 2022-23 academic year.

The two questions Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission designed for the state’s community colleges and universities to identify student parent status using existing demographic data collection forms are listed here. Institutions are required to annually report the data to the Higher Education Coordinating Commission as part of their regular student-level data submissions.

The legislation defines a student parent as a parent or a person acting as a parent or a legal guardian. 

The legislation also states that Higher Education Coordinating Commission must submit a report to the Oregon Legislative Assembly that discusses the progress institutions have made toward implementing the requirements and summarizes the data that has been collected.

Texas

House Bill 1361 was enacted in Texas in June 2023 and requires institutions to begin submitting an annual report by fall 2023 on student parents to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The report, submitted by May 1 of each academic year, must include the institution’s number of student parents, demographic data, academic data, and other data as prescribed by the Coordinating Board. 

The legislation defines student parents as the parent or guardian of a child younger than 18 years old.

The bill charges the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board with adopting rules to administer the legislation. In an April 2026 memo sent to the state’s public institutions, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board provided a parenting student data collection survey that collects aggregated student parent data from each institution. Other than directions to coordinate with an “institutional reporting official to ensure the timely collection of these items,” the memo doesn’t outline specific questions for institutions to use.

HB 1361 also mandated the designation of at least one employee at each institution to act as a “liaison officer” for current or incoming student parents. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s survey also collects the contact information for that liaison officer. According to the legislation, the liaison officer will “provide to the students information regarding support services and other resources available to the students at the institution.”

Research published in August 2026 that surveyed 49 Texas colleges and universities reports some of the initial outcomes from the state’s student parent legislation.

Virginia

Virginia’s House Bill 427, enacted in April 2026, adds “self-identified students who are parents” to the list of student data the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) is already required to gather from institutions as part of its data research responsibilities.

In an interview with Imaginable Futures, Julie Ajinkya, a [rincipal at HCM Strategists, explained that “the state already had strong data infrastructure connecting higher ed institutions, so legislation could build on what existed rather than creating something new.”

The legislation defines student parent as any parent, guardian, legal custodian, or other person having control or charge of a child.

According to SCHEV, students aren’t required to tell colleges they are parents, but will have the option to self-report that information. Per local reporting, institutions will have flexibility in how they can collect the data from students.

National interest in student parent data collection policy

According to New America, while individual state policies are a “step in the right direction,” they also create a patchwork of student parent data collection that, from a national level, can make it difficult to measure how the student parent population is doing across the country.

The Understanding Student Parent Outcomes Act was introduced in 2023 by U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross, a Democrat who represents North Carolina’s 2nd District. U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, a Democrat from Georgia, and U.S. Rep. Ann Kuster, a Democrat from New Hampshire, cosponsored the bill. In June 2025, the bill was reintroduced as H.R. 3994 with bipartisan support, as U.S. Representative Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska, joined McBath as a cosponsor.

The bill would establish a common definition of the term ‘‘parenting student’’ and require data collection on this student population. The data would then be reported to the national Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) database.

As of September 2026, H.R. 3994 remains in committee.

The Urban Institute, a national nonprofit research organization, is working to connect data collection with improved student outcomes. One part of that work is providing guidance to institutions on how to best collect student parent data.

The Urban Institute has also convened two College Communities of Practice made up of institutions that “have an annual request or mandate to collect student-parent data at the student-record level from any higher administrative level.” This Data-to-Action Campaign for Parenting Students began as a community of practice between community colleges in California, Illinois, and Oregon. Since then, the number of states participating has grown, and in January 2026, Texas became the latest state to join the community of practice.