Well, about 20% of Kentucky college students are parents, and a report released last month during National Student Parent Month showed more than 300,000 Kentucky parents don't have a degree.

The Kentucky Council on Post-secondary education is hoping to address barriers that may keep parents from enrolling and graduating.

So one of the findings is that 375,000 Kentucky parents don't have a post-secondary credential.

What that tells us is that there's an extreme opportunity for our state to help not just our parenting students, but also their families and then ultimately, our communities with economic mobility.

If we can design the right supports for for folks that are interested in returning.

And so the report highlights some key recommendations around that.

One is, assistance.

How?

And that's not just for tuition assistance but also for daycare assistance.

What we know in the state is that 39% of the median income is necessary for one infant in full time daycare.

So those financial supports are critical.

The report also highlighted that we, as as many across states across the nation have childcare deserts where the the demand, for child care is greater than the supply.

And then finally basic supports at the campus level.

So student basic needs, mental health supports.

A typical parenting student is in her 30s.

Female.

Typically head of household.

First generation college student.

Working and going to school part time.

So when we think about the challenges, any anything such as a closed daycare, a snow day, a sick child, an unexpected bill can really disrupt a parenting students ability to persist in post-secondary education.

We know that a post-secondary credential supports economic and health and wellness, indicators for families.

And so we also know that when we are supporting that parenting student, we are actually supporting, multigenerational change, because key research continues to tell us that the educational attainment of the parent is one of the single biggest predictors of the educational attainment of the child.

So we're supporting that parenting student, but we're really supporting that that family for generations to come.

That makes our community stronger.

And then it makes our state stronger and our workforce stronger.

So I think, I think we want to create on our campuses a sense of belonging for student parents.

Some of the early things that we're hearing from our student parent research, voice research is that parents don't always feel they belong there.

And so parent groups, warm handoffs on campus so that parents aren't navigating multiple offices can go a long way.

Also, do parents see themselves even in the marketing materials of campuses?

Having a way for campuses to share that yes, you belong here as your identity as a parent.

Along with your identity as a student.

For parents, you can't really separate those two things.