In wake of pandemic, colleges should keep providing online options to help student parents

As the pandemic winds down and more and more students are expected to return to the classroom in the fall, many colleges have begun to eliminate hybrid and remote options for learning. While this might be a relief for some students who are looking forward to the traditional college experience, many nontraditional students are dreading the return.

For student parents like myself, a return to in-person classes means an entirely new set of challenges, given that our free mental and emotional capacity might already be stretched to its limits.

Returning to physical classrooms requires many of us to find affordable and convenient child care as well as extra time to fulfill household duties. Around 4.8 million students, over a quarter of all undergraduate college students, are raising children. Nearly two-thirds of those student parents say they face child care challenges, which makes it concerning yet unsurprising that over half of student parents have considered dropping out of school due to the demands of parenting.

This undue stress takes a toll, especially on student parents like me. Whether taking classes in person or online, 43% of students with children feel stressed all or most of the time, and an astounding 85% worry about their mental health. While higher education is stressful for students without kids, the added pressure on student parents can affect their ability to remember and retain information.

When cluttered with too many external factors, it can be difficult to learn new concepts. Stress is a particularly potent inhibitor of our working memory, and for those of us who are balancing a degree, a family, and even a job, stress can be paralyzing.

In fact, studies show that student parents tend to rank “financial worry,” “difficulty finding your next meal,” and “lack of time for household care,” as some of our other top concerns and challenges throughout our academic careers. Working to complete a degree and learn the concepts necessary for a future job is hard enough, but when you’re sitting in class trying to plan out your child’s next meal or figure out how to pay tuition for your next course, the mental and physical toll can be immense.

This toll is backed by data. More than one in three student parents report having several anxiety attacks, and a similar percentage said they experience extreme fatigue often or all the time. It’s no wonder 58% of students with children have admitted to seeking out mental health services on campus while only 37% of traditional students have done the same.

While universities cannot provide for students in all aspects of their lives, they can ease the burden for nontraditional students who will work themselves to the brink if it means a degree and a shot at a better life for their family.

Maintaining access to online courses and resources is critical to this success. More than a third of student parents express high interest in online meetings or platforms as well as day care services and more information on counseling or therapy sessions. Many of these services are already offered by universities and would just require additional marketing to ensure we are aware of what’s available to us.

As a mother of two who works full time to provide for my family and put myself through school, my schedule is far from traditional. My finances also get tight, forcing me to save money where I can, which often means using online educational services to help offset the extreme cost of textbooks or taking time off work to seek support from on-campus resources.

I, and student parents just like me, are dedicated to our academic careers. Despite the challenges of balancing school and children, student parents would be better able to obtain a degree and retain the information we need to learn if universities are flexible and willing to offer solutions that benefit our mental health and allow us to succeed. Higher education should consider maintaining the online infrastructure they’ve developed over the course of the pandemic and encourage the use of online services to give parents more time to study on a schedule that minimizes the strain and stresses on their academic journeys.