The President’s Proposed Budget Would Strip Child Care Access from Student Parents

Stephanie Baker

Editorial disclosure: The following article mentions domestic abuse within a student parent's story about accessing child care.

Though the Trump administration says it wants to increase birth rates, its budget priorities tell a different story. Last week, the Office of The President released its 2026 fiscal year budget request. The request asks Congress to slash funding for programs that support education and essential needs for families.

The proposed cuts would have implications for families headed by student parents. One program that is designed to support student parents specifically is the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) grant, which the administration proposes eliminating entirely. Since 1999, CCAMPIS has funded child care access for low-income parents enrolled in college. Competitive grants are awarded to campuses, who use the funds to provide on-campus care or subsidies to access care in the community for students who qualify.

For fiscal year 2024, Congress appropriated $75 million for CCAMPIS. $75 million might sound like a lot of money, but to put it in perspective, President Trump's golf outings have cost $26 million in the first ten weeks following his inauguration. If that pace continues, taxpayers will spend more on Presidential golf trips in a year than the entire cost of a program that provides child care for thousands of student parent families. If budgets are a statement of priorities, this administration is clear: families and education don't make the cut.

For the more than 3 million undergraduate student parents in this country, around half of whom have one or more children under 6, the proposal to eliminate CCAMPIS is a betrayal of the idea that parents can work towards achieving a better life for their children.

Child care costs parents on average over $11,500 annually, with infant care more expensive than public college tuition in 38 states. Student parents need more investment in child care, not less.

For student parents, access to on-campus care is linked to greater persistence and graduation rates, making CCAMPIS a smart targeted intervention for this population.

The President's proposal asserts that CCAMPIS is duplicative of the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that authorizes grants to states, territories, and tribal agencies to subsidize child care for eligible children and to improve overall quality and supply of child care. Discretionary CCDBG funds are combined with mandatory funds from the Child Care Entitlement to States (CCES), together commonly referred to as the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF).

CCDF subsidies are often inaccessible to student parents, as well as families generally. These subsidies serve only an estimated 13 percent of eligible children 5 and under. Student parents can have trouble accessing CCDF subsidies, both due to limited funding that stymies the program generally, and state choices about how to treat postsecondary education. States can decide what activities qualify families for subsidies and in some cases, prioritize low-paid work over education and training that ultimately leads to higher wages.

The budget proposal also argues that higher education institutions could accommodate child care needs among their student parent population and that many already do, disregarding the decline in campus-based child care centers in recent years.

To illustrate the impact of CCAMPIS on student parent success, we asked some student parents about the impact of the program.

Melissa* told us after she left an abusive relationship, with no education, career, or financial resources to support herself, "I never thought I would rebuild a meaningful life." Melissa described that when her son first started at the child care center, "he was behind in speech and had no friends. Thanks to the program, Melissa says, "he has blossomed. His speech has improved tremendously, he is thriving socially, and he is better prepared for school." Thanks to child care support from a CCAMPIS grant, Melissa is set to graduate in 2026 with a degree in nursing, a field facing a shortage of workers. "Without CCAMPIS," she told us, "I simply could not have continued [in school]."

Monique*, a community college student in the southwest, shared that "as a military spouse with no nearby family or built-in support system, I often felt completely alone. This [CCAMPIS program] has changed that. It's given me a network. Child care funding has given me the ability to care for myself and work toward a better future for my family, all while knowing my children are in safe, nurturing environments."

Advocacy organizations have been asking for more CCAMPIS funds to increase the number of student parents with access to reliable, quality child care. In the 2016-2017 academic year (the most recent year for which data is publicly available), 3,300 student parents were served through CCAMPIS. This is when the program was funded at just under $15.5 million**; CCAMPIS today is likely serving considerably more student parent families, but still many others struggle to access child care. Eliminating this critical program would only worsen the crisis.

Congress should reject the proposal to eliminate CCAMPIS. Student parents need more resources to support child care needs, not less. Dismantling a program that serves two generations and allows parents to upskill and access opportunities to better support their families would only serve to worsen the child care crisis and jeopardize students' progress toward degree completion.

As Melissa told us "without affordable child care, many women are forced to delay or give up their education entirely. CCAMPIS changes that. It gives mothers*** the ability to pursue higher education, enter vital professions like nursing, and raise children who are better prepared socially, emotionally, and academically."

*Student parents have been given a pseudonym to protect their privacy

**Fiscal year 2016 data, for project year 2016-2017 activities

***CCAMPIS serves low-income student parents, not just mothers. Nearly three quarters of student parents are women, so eliminating the program would likely affect women disproportionately.