About Us • The CalWORKs Association

STUDENT-PARENTS AND THEIR CHILDREN ARE STRUGGLING WITH BASIC NEEDS

At least 1 in 5 college students is parenting a child.
53% of parenting college students were food-insecure in the last 30 days.
68% of parenting college students were housing-insecure in the previous year.
17% of parenting students were unhoused in the previous year. (Hope Center)

EDUCATION IS THE PATH TO ECONOMIC JUSTICE

Before the COVID-19 emergency, more than a third of Californians were living in or near poverty. (PPIC) Since March 2020, poverty, hunger, and homeless have skyrocketed.

Research shows that higher education is the path out of poverty: the California poverty rate is 7.7% among college graduates, but 30.6% among adults without a high school diploma.

In 2019-2020, California Community College CalWORKs Programs served over 18,000 low-income TANF student-parents.

BUT SOMETHING ABOUT HIGHER ED ISN’T WORKING FOR PARENTING STUDENTS.

Only 37% of parenting students complete a degree or certificate within six years, compared with 59% of students without children. (Hope Center)

While about half of women earn a degree within six years of enrolling in college, only 8% of single mothers earn a degree in the same timeframe. (Hope Center)

WHAT IS CALWORKS?

CalWORKs is the name of the TANF (public welfare) program for parents with children under 18 in California. Each community college in California has a CalWORKs Program on campus. These community college CalWORKs programs are administered by the colleges and chiefly funded through the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

Community College CalWORKs programs are unique, in that they straddle both the higher education and TANF welfare systems. Contact us to find out more about how the CalWORKs Association is supporting parenting college students.