Parents are also getting stuck with school debt

College debt is building and, increasingly, parents are on the hook.

Where do you turn when you’ve maxed out on federal student loans? Ask Mom and Dad to take out some parent loans, too.

The average cumulative federal student loan debt that parents borrow even exceeds what’s being taken on by students, according to new research.

On average, parents owed $32,596 for their cumulative loans taken out under the Federal Parent PLUS program at college graduation in 2015-16.

On average, college grads with bachelor’s degrees owed $29,669 in student loans in 201516, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher and vice president of research for Savingforcollege.com.

To be sure, a much smaller percentage of parents borrow than students. About 69 percent of students took out student loans in 2015-16, compared with about 14.4 percent of parents, Kantrowitz said.

The high cost of college — and the inability of some families to save much money — has caused nearly half of college grads with student loans to take out the maximum amount of loans allowed under the federal student loan program.

“The parents are picking up the overflow when the student reaches the student loan limits,” Kantrowitz said.

In many cases, the student could even agree to repay the Parent PLUS loans.

“Some parents will have side agreements with the student where the student agrees to make the payments,” Kantrowitz said.

Not everyone who borrows, of course, is borrowing to the max.

One Dearborn, Mich., mother I talked with took out about $6,000 in loans about five years ago when her daughter began attending Central Michigan University.

The idea was to borrow some for the first year to pay part of the tuition, try to pay that off quickly and then build up savings to cover the cost of college in future years.

Her daughter worked during the summers, took a few odd jobs while she was at school in Mt. Pleasant, Mich., and she took out about $5,000 in student loans herself.

The mother repaid the loans; the daughter who graduated in 2017 still has a bit more to go.

For students who attend higher cost private colleges and out-of-state schools, the need to borrow can become even greater.

“They have to get the money from somewhere,” Kantrowitz said. “Debt may be the only option, especially if you’re going to a more expensive college.”

Parents take on more student loan debt for a variety of reasons. Some college students are attending some expensive, prestigious schools to study specific fields. Some parents saved far less than they needed for college, financial aid isn’t as easy to get as some families expect, and big scholarships are limited.

When student borrowing hits the limit, more parents start filling out the paperwork for private student loans or the federal Parent PLUS loans.

Parent borrowing on PLUS loans is up 19.2 percent from $27,352 in 2011-12. And it’s up 40 percent from $23,279 nearly 10 years ago, according to research by Kantrowitz.

Average cumulative debt at graduation for bachelor’s degree recipients increased by only 1 percent from 2011 to 2016. But that’s up 26.5 percent from $23,228 in 2007-08.