As a full-time administrative assistant and college student who also has a 4-year-old boy, Isabella Jefferson has almost no time to herself.
Jefferson, a 31-year-old student at Santa Fe Community College, is working toward an associate degree with a goal of becoming a physical therapy assistant.
Her schedule is unforgiving. But she can’t take her eye off the prize she sees at the end — being a role model for her son and giving him a better life.
“Had I not found my husband and had a child, I wouldn’t be in school right now,” Jefferson said. “They both gave me the drive to become something better and not stick with dead-end jobs.”
A third of respondents to a statewide survey of college students said they were parents or expecting parents, according to results released Tuesday by Santa Fe Community College’s Early Childhood Center of Excellence. But many student parents said they aren’t getting the support they need, particularly when it comes to accessible child care.
“These issues aren’t easily solved,” said Early Childhood Center of Excellence Executive Director Catron Allred during a virtual presentation of the findings. “But improving the economic mobility and opportunities for parents improves outcomes for their children. And that’s why this issue is so important.”
The report offers several policy recommendations: Make learning more flexible, such as by exploring more online options; offer more support services, like access to basic needs or mental health services; and make college campuses more child-friendly, including by investing in child care facilities.
During Tuesday’s presentation, New Mexico Higher Education Deputy Secretary Patricia Trujillo said in addition to efforts to make college tuition free, the state has invested millions of dollars in some of those areas, including on-campus food security programs, such as food pantries, and grants aimed at mental and behavioral health needs.
With the upcoming publication of a statewide report on college students’ basic needs, Trujillo added, she hopes “we’re going to be able to put our statewide best minds together and really start thinking about other policy pieces that we can put in place to make sure that student parents are supported across the state.”
More than 3,000 students responded to the survey, which was administered between early February and early April. Nine schools participated, including Central New Mexico Community College — which in 2023 had the second-highest enrollment of any higher education institution in the state — and Santa Fe Community College.
The median age of student parents who responded to the survey was 36. Some 62% were first-generation college students, and 72% identified as students of color.
Like Jefferson, student parents overwhelmingly said finding enough time to get everything done was the biggest challenge they faced. Many also cited financial strains — paying for their schooling or other basic needs — as significant challenges.
Many of the challenges they cited, though, were also common among students who didn’t have children.
The exception to that rule? Access to child care.
About a quarter of student parents said they struggled to find or pay for child care.
Student parents at SFCC often have cited on-campus “drop-in” child care — allowing parents to check a child in as needed — as a resource they would benefit from. But providing such a service is easier said than done.
“It hasn’t been implemented to date at SFCC,” said Rachel Kutcher, manager of the Student Parent Success Program at the Early Childhood Center of Excellence. “A big challenge is really how to pay for it.”
There’s limited funding for on-campus child care, Kutcher said, and most of it is reserved for full or part-day care.
Still, Kutcher said the college has taken other significant steps toward supporting parents, from setting up play areas for children in high-volume areas to establishing a family study room to piloting a coaching group that in part helps student parents access resources they may need.
While 40% of student parents said they wanted drop-in, on-campus child care, according to the survey results, only 3% said they use any child care services on campus.
It’s an issue Emily Wildau, a research and policy analyst with New Mexico Voices for Children, said she’s heard often. She added the issue can get even trickier once children start school and their schedules don’t always sync up with their parents’.
“There’s challenges around that, that on-campus care, I think, could really help alleviate — or any sort of ... after-school care,” Wildau said.
Many students with children preferred to take their classes online, according to survey results. Renee Ryberg, a researcher with Maryland-based research organization Child Trends, said during the presentation that was because they often juggled intensive work schedules, with 58% of students with children working 30 hours or more.
“Student parents mean business,” she said.
In New Mexico, single mothers with associate degrees earn about $367,000 more over their lifetimes and contribute about $105,000 more in taxes compared to single mothers who have only high school diplomas, survey results show.
Most student parent respondents — 64% — said they returned to school for higher earnings. But just as many returned because they wanted to be an inspiration to their children.
Jackie Rodriguez, a 30-year-old single mother who’s majoring in criminal justice at SFCC, is one example of such students.
Rodriguez was 27, she said, when she became pregnant with her daughter Maya. Until that point, she’d pursued a career as a cosmetologist and then worked for the city of Albuquerque, and had never been to college. Maya changed that.
“For our future, I think me being able to have a degree and being able to pursue other levels of a career with a degree — it’s just going to get us so much further in life,” she said.
Rodriguez’s tuition and other schooling costs are covered by the New Mexico Opportunity Scholarship and additional financial aid, and she saves on rent by living with her parents. Still, she’s had to give up a lot.
Citing long waitlists and hefty price tags at day cares in Santa Fe, Rodriguez cares for her daughter herself. All the while, she juggles a full-time class load and a part-time job.
But for her, there’s no question if her sacrifices have been worth it.
“Giving her the best possible life that I can give her as a single mom is my number one priority,” she said of Maya. “I don’t think that I would do this any other way. For me, I know my daughter’s safe. I know she’s happy. I know she’s healthy, and she’s my priority. So it’s 100% worth it.”
