Daniel A. Gonzalez, 41, is a nursing student at Jamestown Community College in New York and a parent to 14-month-old Sebastiano. During his son’s first year, Gonzalez juggled night shifts at a medical clinic, diapers and classes on just a few hours of sleep — earning around $36,000 while trying to cover the soaring costs of baby formula and child care.
Gonzalez believes education is key to building stronger parents and, in turn, stronger children. Affordable child care can reduce obstacles for student parents like him, he said.
“We don’t have people in the community going to school — simply because they can’t afford child care,” Gonzalez said. “They’ve got to wait 16 or 18 years before they can try to give their kids a better life by going back to school — but at that point, your child’s already grown.”
The Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program has aimed to ease that burden since its launch in 1999. The federal initiative provides $80 million in grants to colleges with accredited child care, helping students cover child care costs while pursuing degrees. But now its future is uncertain: the Trump administration’s 2026 budget proposal eliminates it, and the Department of Education did not open this year’s grant application. Advocates warn that without CCAMPIS, student parents are far more likely to drop out.
While Jamestown Community College doesn’t receive CCAMPIS funding, Gonzalez feels the presence of the program at other colleges is essential for student parents like him.
Renee Ryberg, senior research scientist at Child Trends, points out that one in five undergraduates are student parents. They earn grades comparable to their peers without children but are far less likely to graduate, she said.
“So for us, that really points to barriers outside of the classroom that student parents are facing on their path to graduation,” Ryberg said. “One of the largest barriers is child care and specifically accessible, affordable child care.”
In many states, that cost exceeds tuition. According to Child Care Aware of America, the average annual price of infant care at a center surpasses in-state university tuition in 41 states.
CCAMPIS is the only federal grant aimed at the nearly five million student parents in the country. But now, colleges are scrambling to find alternatives as grant money dries up.
At Kansas State University, the four-year CCAMPIS grant expired this year, and a request for extension was denied, said Berni Howe, director of the University’s Center for Child Development. The program had subsidized child care for 15–20 student parents annually.
“We ask for information about whether [student parents] would be able to continue their enrollment without the subsidy — a large portion of our parents report that their subsidy for their child care tuition is essential to them being successful,” Howe said.
The Center is now referring students to state and county programs, but each has its own eligibility barriers, leaving many parents without support.
According to The 19th, 13 colleges have also reportedly lost funding mid-grant, after the DOE argued that some programs were teaching toddlers about gender ideology and race — part of the administration’s broader effort to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The DOE said in an email that its office wouldn’t respond to press requests until after the government shutdown ends.
Austin Community College, in its final year of funding, has been notified of continued support for now. The school receives roughly $1 million annually through CCAMPIS, providing child care scholarships to 50–55 students each year, according to Angelica Cancino de Sandoval, ACC’s director of basic needs and advocacy.
But the university is aware of the uncertainty around the future of CCAMPIS, and has a “backup plan,” Sandoval said. She added that ACC has institutional grants that it uses to support other students with child care scholarships. The university can also reach out to other existing donors if needed, she said.
Student parents make up 28% of ACC’s population, and more than 400 remain on the CCAMPIS waitlist.
“The completion rate is 82% for children who receive scholarships — 20 points above the average ACC student,” Sandoval noted. “They’re doing up and above the average ACC student who does not have a child care scholarship.”
In Congress, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) are pushing to reauthorize and expand CCAMPIS to $500 million. The bill, reintroduced last month, has strong backing from advocacy groups such as Today’s Students Coalition.
“This is a moment where we are seeing so many cost pressures on families,” Clark said. “We want students to be able to go back, get a degree, make that investment in themselves and be able to help them pay for child care.”
Tanya Ang, executive director of the Today’s Students Coalition, said while it’s going to be challenging for the bill to be discussed during the ongoing shutdown, she is hopeful due to the bipartisan interest in CCAMPIS.
“You have both sides of the aisle supporting CCAMPIS and wanting to see it get funded and so it could be one of the few things that might be able to be looked at and discussed during this Congress,” Ang said.
In the current Senate appropriations package, CCAMPIS funding has stayed at its current level. However, the House’s version of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education bill eliminates it entirely — aligning with the administration’s proposal to zero out the program in the 2026 budget.
That split means the program’s future will likely hinge on negotiations when both chambers reconcile their spending bills. Until then, colleges and advocates are caught in limbo, unsure whether their grants will continue.
Ryberg, the senior research scientist at Child Trends, said the fear among universities and student parents is only growing — especially the worry that funding could disappear mid-semester.
“The word I’m thinking of is discombobulating,” Ryberg said. “Students rely on childcare to be able to go to class, to be able to stay enrolled and so that shift you’re suddenly dealing with: ‘Wait, how am I going to go to class if I have a two-year-old with me? It’s a real question.”
