California college students with kids could get first pick of classes if new bill passes
College students with children could get the first pick of classes during registration each semester if a new bill passes in California.
AB 2881, introduced by Assemblymember Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, would require California State Universities and California Community Colleges to give students with dependent minor children living with them priority registration.
Since the state’s Constitution protects the University of California from Legislative control, the bill can only “request” it do the same for its nine campuses.
Colleges already give priority registration to some groups of students, including veterans, foster youth, students with disabilities, and student-athletes. Priority registration is coveted because getting the first pick of classes helps students create a school schedule that works for them. The most popular courses can fill up fast.
Student caretakers are often dealing with hectic schedules that involve daycare and after-school care, according to Larissa Mercado-López, a professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Fresno State. She is also part of the CSU Pregnant & Parenting Student Network, which advised Berman on the bill.
“Priority registration has just become so much more important for student parents,” she told The Bee’s Education Lab. “The pandemic really made us confront the challenges that student parents experience accessing courses that accommodate their parenting schedule.”
She said because of COVID-19, student parents “are dealing with even more financial constraints and capacity issues related to daycare after school care. So it’s even more important that student parents be able to register for the classes that they need when they need them.”
AB 2881 would also mandate that colleges have a website page dedicated to resources for student parents and that they help students apply for the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) program.
Fresno State has a page with information about student rights and links to where to find the university’s diaper bank and lactation stations.
About one in five college students are parents, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, and student parents are nearly twice as likely to leave college without a degree after six years. Research also finds two-thirds of student parents live in or near poverty and have higher median student debt. Students of color, who already face higher barriers to attaining a college degree, are also more likely to be parents: 33% of Black students, 30% of Native American students, and 21% of Latino students have children.
The Bee reported on the struggles of students with children at the beginning of the pandemic when students cited the need for flexibility while they cared for their children at home.
The bill is headed next to the California State Assembly Committee on Higher Education, where it will be heard Tuesday.
The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Read more from The Bee’s Education Lab on our website.