The new kids on campus? Toddlers, courtesy of Head Start — from npr.org by Elissa Nadworny
Now that Sarah Barnes’ son, Samuel, 2, is enrolled in Head Start, it’s lifted an extra stress off Barnes’ shoulders. “It just makes life a little bit easier having child care right on campus,” she says. “I can literally walk over here between classes and check on him.”
Barnes is among the nearly 4 million U.S. college students raising children while getting a degree. More than a third of those students attend community colleges.
Single mothers, like Barnes, account for almost half of student parents, and the vast majority of them have incomes at or near the poverty line, which means they’d qualify for Head Start.
But it’s hard to take advantage of that program if you don’t know about it, and if there isn’t a center with a convenient location.