Assembly Bill 2881 is a Win for Student Parents
By Emma Pratt
Email espratt8@mail.ccsf.edu
Assembly Bill 2881, which aims to help student parents attending public post-secondary institutions, was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 30.
Assembly Bill 2881 would mandate City College to grant priority enrollment to student parents, host a student parent internet webpage on the college’s website, as well as bring greater awareness to the California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC), the Young Child Tax Credit (YCTC), and the California Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).
City College currently has no priority enrollment system for student parents, according to Student Chancellor Heather Brandt. As the bill states, priority enrollment would need to be implemented by July 1. Students with children under 18 years of age who provide more than half of their child’s support are eligible for priority enrollment, wrote Isabelle Lasalle.
The bill specifies that each college must create a student parent information webpage, though City College already has several that provide information on the Family Resource Center. The college must add information on CalEITC, YCTC, and WIC by Feb. 1, to already existing online web pages that provide students with information about public services and programs.
Information about CalEITC, YCTC, and WIC will also need to be made available at the Basic Needs Center. City College’s current Basic Needs Center is hosted by Sparkpoint, which will have its virtual grand opening this October, said Brandt. The college’s Basic Needs Center will eventually be hosted at a physical location on the Ocean Campus and serve the purpose of being a central hub for student services, according to Brandt.
Brandt also said that providing students with information on CalEITC, YCTC, and WIC will bring an important financial literacy component to the Basic Needs Center. Brandt said before the pandemic, City College provided students with free tax services, where students studying related fields could get hands-on experience filing taxes for other students.
Leslie Panduro Ymbertis, a student parent at City College, said that she had not heard of CalEITC, YCTC, or WIC, and would find it helpful to be provided with information about these benefits.
The pandemic made it difficult for the college to provide childcare services for student parents, said Brandt, who also mentioned that the college lost a lot of its student parents during this time. Now that City College’s childcare services are open, Brandt said “It is important people know services are here so they can utilize them like they did pre-pandemic.”
Assembly Bill 2881 also mandates that information about CalEITC, YCTC and WIC are included in college orientations. This mandate comes with good timing, as student parents see pre-pandemic resources returning.
Victor Guerrero, whose wife will soon be a student parent at City College, said that they would both find it useful if they were given information about CalEITC, YCTC and WIC during their upcoming orientation.