{"id":12113,"date":"2020-09-10T18:21:35","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T18:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=12113"},"modified":"2020-09-10T18:21:35","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T18:21:35","slug":"student-parents-juggle-childcare-studies-as-school-year-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=12113","title":{"rendered":"Student parents juggle childcare, studies as school year begins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By LILY BOHLKE<\/strong>
Texas News Service<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
More than 150,000 undergraduate students in Texas are single mothers.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Photo: lyncconf.com\/Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Student parents have some major considerations as the new school year begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From closed childcare centers<\/a>, to nationwide computer shortages and limited broadband access in some areas, the pandemic has exacerbated the challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cristina Guajardo is a resident at the Jeremiah Program<\/a> in Austin, which provides lower-income single moms with safe and affordable housing and childcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With her two-year-old son\u2019s daycare closed, she\u2019s a full-time parent taking online classes at Texas State University, and her senior year just started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not fully present with my classes, I\u2019m not fully present for him,\u201d Guajardo said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s just a matter of trying to juggle it all. And at the end of the day, I\u2019m exhausted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Guajardo hopes she\u2019s setting a good example for her son, for resiliency and how to overcome obstacles in difficult times. About one in four Texas undergraduates<\/a> is also a parent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student parents, especially single mothers and Black parents, tend to have more student debt and less financial security than their peers who don\u2019t have children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marisa Phillips, executive director of Buckner Children and Family Services<\/a> in Lufkin, said there are support gaps that institutions aren\u2019t filling, or even aware of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is rare at this point that schools even track or know exactly how many of their students are parenting students,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phillips added more campuses are bringing on designated staff to help support student parents with their financial and childcare plans, textbook loans, and other needs. But it\u2019s a work in progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Childcare centers on college campuses have been gradually closing over the last decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With so many families together at home, Guajardo noted more people now understand the challenges of working and watching the kids simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know, before, that was something that maybe people weren\u2019t aware of,\u201d Guajardo said. \u201cBut for a lot of moms in poverty, and a lot of single moms in particular, that\u2019s our reality. That\u2019s our every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She hopes the programs will lead to better quality and more affordable childcare options, beyond the pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By LILY BOHLKETexas News Service AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Student parents have some major considerations as the new school year begins. From closed childcare centers, to nationwide computer shortages and limited broadband access in some areas, the pandemic has exacerbated the challenges. Cristina Guajardo is a resident at the Jeremiah Program in Austin, which provides lower-income single moms with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12114,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12113\/revisions\/12114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}