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Bill to collect parental-status data for college students draws bipartisan testimony on barriers faced by student parents
Summary
Delegate Ken Kerr and advocates urged the Appropriations Committee to require higher education institutions to collect demographic data on student parents to target services and improve completion rates; panelists and student witnesses described caregiving, childcare closures and poverty-level incomes as drivers of low completion.
Delegate Ken Kerr presented House Bill 298 to the Appropriations Committee as a measure to require collection of parental‑status data for postsecondary students. Kerr said data are currently not collected statewide and that without it institutions cannot design targeted supports to improve completion by student parents.
Dr. Anne Hoffman of Frederick Community College said parenting students face financial burdens, scheduling constraints and psychosocial stress that lower completion rates, and described FCC's Parents Lead program as a model that improves outcomes. “Without the data that tells us which students and which institutions are serving parenting students, resourcing them is impossible,” Hoffman testified.
Josia Klein of the National Women’s Law Center said better data are essential to identifying barriers and cited Title IX‑related accommodations that sometimes require intervention. Multiple student parents testified virtually and in person. Amy Anderson, a Frederick Community College nursing student, described the impending permanent closure of FCC’s Carl and Norma Miller Children's Center (May 16, 2025) and said that loss of on‑campus childcare threatens students’ ability to complete programs. Yassmine Hernandez and other student witnesses described juggling tuition, multiple jobs and childcare costs that exceed $20,000 per year for infants.
Mikaela Martin, who helped pass similar legislation in Oregon, urged the committee to make the student parent population visible to policymakers. Supporters noted the bill carries no fiscal note and framed it as an implementation step that would inform Blueprint for Maryland’s Future obligations.
No formal action was recorded in the hearing record provided.
