Beyond Academic Assistance: Key Findings on Wrapround Services at Community Colleges

A student's ability to succeed in higher education often hinges on factors outside of the classroom. Not unlike other educational institutions, community colleges work to address barriers to success through a variety of support services, commonly referred to as "wraparound services." These supports can, for example, offer career services, provide student parents with child care, help students who work navigate an unexpected loss of income, and ensure that off-campus students have reliable transportation to get to class.

To date, the Richmond Fed's work on community college wraparound services has spotlighted supports for student parents and innovative housing solutions for community college students. We have also documented the complexity of funding wraparound services. In 2025, we surveyed 159 community colleges across 26 states on the support services that they provide to paint a more comprehensive picture of these services across institutions. The wraparound services in the survey were connected to seven main categories: academic and career services, financial and safety net supports, transportation, housing, food services, health services, and child care. We found that all surveyed community colleges provided at least one wraparound service in 2025, and the majority provided more than one. That said, both between and within these categories, responses varied widely across institutions. As one college wrote, "[We are] committed to the overall success of our students, and that goes beyond academics. We know that our students sometimes face challenges to their success by not having enough money for food, inadequate housing, [and] mental health struggles."

Each of the 159 colleges in the survey is unique, and they span the spectrum of institution size, location, geography type, and community demographic. Therefore, it is not surprising to find that the services vary - different students from different areas have different needs. Nonetheless, we find that most schools provide academic and financial support to community college students. Fewer schools are able to provide other services, such as transportation, housing, food, or child care. For the most part, it is the cost of providing the services that creates the biggest barrier. For one of the biggest needs - child care - there are other challenges too, such as space, staffing, and legal liability.

Academic Support, Career Counseling, and Financial Services Are Provided Most Often

The most commonly provided wraparound services are those that are closely linked to the core mission of community colleges: academic and career success. Almost all community colleges in the sample provide academic and career counselors for students, on-campus job fairs, transfer advising, and an early alert system for at-risk students. These counseling services can include faculty providing broad or subject-specific mentoring, dedicated counselors in a career counseling form, or even testing or tutoring from the school. One school reported that they have "several programs dedicated to academic and career services ... high school career coaches, early college advisors, and a dedicated academic advising center that is required for all students ... under a certain threshold of completed credit hours" to support their students. Respondents also shared that they commonly help facilitate internships and apprenticeships.

Obviously, academic and financial support are critical to success in postsecondary education, particularly for students with less household support, such as those from lower incomes or first-time college students. But there are many students who are held up in their degree attainment from a lack of access to other supports. How much are the community colleges able to provide those services?

Where to Live and How to Travel?

Students struggle to complete any postsecondary work if they can't live close to the school or find transportation. About 80 percent of respondents indicated that transportation services, often existing local transportation, are available for students to get to and from their school's campus. As shown in the chart below, it is far less likely for transportation to be provided by the community college itself or by a nonprofit or for-profit entity.

Are Students Mentally and Physically Able to Learn?

Before a student can sit down in a classroom or complete the necessary homework, they must meet basic needs, such as healthy food and medical care. Eighty-eight percent of the responding community colleges have on-campus food pantries. Community colleges find other ways to provide food options as well, through cafeterias and partnerships with restaurants, community service providers, and food banks.

Child Care for Student Parents

Finding quality, affordable child care is a common challenge in communities across the nation, and it is no different for community college students. In fact, when asked if there are wraparound services or student supports that schools would like to provide but cannot, child care was the most common response (followed by transportation). Currently, only about one-third of respondent schools have child-friendly spaces on campus for students with dependent children, and about 30 percent have an on-campus child care facility for students, regardless if it is subsidized by the institution.

Community Colleges Want to Expand Services, But How and Which Services?

The key question is, in a world with limited resources, which are the wraparound services that offer students the best chance of success? Unfortunately, it is difficult to ascertain that with this data. Although three-quarters of respondent community colleges track the number of students who use available services, far fewer have the resources to track the connection between wraparound services and educational outcomes.

So how do community colleges decide which services to provide? They decide largely through student surveys, some form of student government, or town hall meetings. Community colleges also reported using local population or employment trends, usage data on available services, available data on known barriers that derail student success, and input from faculty and staff.

When asked about the barriers to providing the services they would like to provide, almost every respondent school reported that funding or cost of services is the largest barrier. Other barriers included available space, unknown circumstances faced by students, challenges with federal and state partnerships, buy in from stakeholders, on-campus coordination, and available qualified staff including mental health providers, clinicians, child care providers, and grant writers.

The existing wraparound services are primarily provided through grants and investments, many of which likely come from federal or state sources. Direct state and federal government funds also provide a lot of the support for services. To complicate matters, colleges within states and across the nation are competing for a fixed number of dollars each year, and these funds can have strict requirements on how they are used. In addition, limited staff means that schools must focus their efforts on a limited number of funding streams. In the words of one community college advisor, there is simply "too much red tape for us" to pursue all of the funding streams that they would like to access.

How to Increase the Chances of Academic Success?

Community colleges play an outsized role in postsecondary education and workforce development across our region. They also serve as important anchors in their own communities. Often, administrators and educators in community colleges can see better than anyone the role that wraparound services play in ensuring student success, both in higher education and in workforce outcomes. With limited resources, schools can benefit from better understanding what services best enable student success, sharing best practices within types of wraparound services, and exploring creative funding opportunities.

Views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond or the Federal Reserve System.