By Regan Moss
Student Caregivers
Over 10 million students in the US are student-caregivers. 5.4 million are student parents, accounting for roughly 1 in 4 undergraduates, and nearly 1 in 3 graduate students. Over 50% of these student parents have children under the age of six. Nearly 5 million of these students provide care to someone who is aging or sick, often parents or grandparents.
Student-caregivers are individuals who provide care – emotional, physical, financial or other support – to someone, often a child or older family member, while in school. Care work can take many forms, but we, the team at the Caregiver Initiative at Auburn University, are working to craft an exhaustive definition of student-caregivers so that all students can be supported by our university, while also working to maintain considerations for differences in needs, roles, and experiences among this student population.
The Caregiver Initiative [CIT] has integrated questions about caregiving status into institutional surveys, including entrance, exit, and graduation surveys. From these efforts, we’ve learned that 6% of our undergraduate students are caregivers at some point during their undergraduate careers. Only ~3% of student-caregivers at Auburn are a caregiver before starting college, indicating that 97% of those who identify as caregivers assume that role after starting college. Our campus partners have also shared that over 180 of graduate student parents, a subset of student-caregivers, have reached out for financial support for child care.
Defining & Statistics about Diaper Access
According to The National Diaper Bank Network Diaper Check 2024 study, 1 in 2 US households with young children experience diaper need, the lack of access to a diaper supply adequate for keeping a young child clean, dry, and healthy. A 2017 research study documenting the experiences of families with diaper need found that adults who struggled most often to meet their child’s needs for diapers also struggled to meet their own educational goals.
Diaper Access Among Student Caregivers
Like caregivers who are not students, student-caregivers experience diaper need.
Within the first year of life, caregivers may pay $1,500 for an infant’s diapers. Adult incontinence supplies (e.g., bladder control briefs), which many aging or sick adults require, can cost $3,600 a year. The average college student spends $12,300/year on living expenses alone. Covering school and hygiene product expenses can be challenging for many students. Just 40% of full-time students are employed while attending school, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Nationally, many student caregivers are the sole provider for their young children. Among the Auburn student body, many student caregivers are first-generation students and Pell-grant recipients.
Student-caregivers report that the lack of supportive institutional climates and policies can make it challenging to fully be a student and a caregiver. For example, diaper access among student caregivers can create additional barriers to attending school and participating in campus life. Child care providers generally require caregivers to provide all of the diapers a child uses during the child care day, even if child care tuition is subsidized by grants or vouchers. If student-caregivers do not have access to the diapers required, they may have to miss class, study groups, work, or other campus activities to care for their child instead.
CIT’s ongoing research will seek to provide better estimates of diaper need among student caregivers and best practices for addressing diaper access on college campuses. Insights from the National Diaper Bank Network reveal that 1 in 4 (25%) of parents and caregivers with diaper need reported having to miss work or school because they did not have enough diapers for their child to attend child care.
Building an On-Campus Diaper Supply
In 2022, CIT’s team began benchmarking efforts in our community and on-campus to understand opportunities to address diaper access. Though we did not survey to estimate diaper need, we knew that there were student-caregivers on our campus, and rightfully assumed that many would benefit from increased access to diapers.
A local PERIOD. chapter had supplied period products in our on-campus food pantry and we approached the food pantry to see if it was possible to supply diapers through their services. As a menstrual equity advocate in the state, I was very familiar with the National Diaper Bank Network and worked to understand how we could connect to Bundles of Hope Diaper Bank, the diaper bank in our state. After discussions on the feasibility of stocking the pantry, we established partnerships with staff and faculty across campus who were able to help pick-up diapers at Bundles of Hope Diaper Bank, located 2 hours away. We were able to secure funds to help reimburse drivers for the mileage driven between the diaper bank and campus.
Realizing that diaper need can be stigmatizing, as can the experience of being a student-caregiver, we’ve worked to engage multiple campus stakeholders in the diaper distribution process, aiming to promote both help-seeking behaviors and a campus culture that destigmatizes material need and encourages systems change to address access. Members of our campus community can sign up to volunteer to help stock the diaper supplies. Students and staff who volunteer to stock the pantry signed up consistently every month to help unload vehicles when drivers returned from Bundles of Hope Diaper Bank. We’re hoping to expand on this and consider educational campaigns for student supports to recognize the need for diapers and other material supplies and also to ‘norm’ needs on campus and destigmatize accessing support.
To date, across 6 semesters (Fall of 2023-Spring of 2025), we have distributed over 19,000 diapers. The pantry often runs out of supplies, as more students are becoming aware of the resource.
Opportunities for Growth: Building a Self-Sustaining Diaper Bank
Originally, we partnered with Bundles of Hope Diaper Bank to supply diapers through our on-campus food pantry. However, access to the food pantry is contingent on economic status. Diaper access impacts people who are low-income and high-income; unemployed and employed. Student-caregivers may be experiencing diaper need but not be able to access the campus food pantry because their household income is too high. Expanding diaper distribution to additional locations outside of the campus food pantry will ensure everyone in the university community experiencing diaper need, regardless of economic status, is able to provide for their loved one. This also ensures that staff and faculty can also access diapers.
Opportunities for Growth: Seeking Long-Term Funding
We’ve integrated diaper distribution with existing support services for students aimed at alleviating material need. However, we’ve realized that diaper need supersedes the capacity of these services, and we’ve sought out additional funding mechanisms to move beyond distributing a supplemental diaper supply to distributing a reliable, substantial diaper supply. Currently, our limited supply cannot give people a full month of diapers, but can provide a few extra diapers to get them through the month. We’re aiming to expand so that students can take as many diapers as they need and rely on this resource.
Opportunities for Growth: Supplying Adult Diapers
Many adult caregivers also need access to adult incontinence products or ‘adult bladder control briefs.’ While many diaper distribution programs provide diapers for infants and young children, our initiative is also able to respond to broader caregiver needs. We’re working to improve our supply to ensure adult briefs are also available. Conversations about diaper access have also led to conversations about formula and baby food access, lactation spaces, childcare/elderly care preference, availability, affordability, and accessibility. Ongoing multi-stakeholder meetings across campus have worked to bridge silos and create a network of support to create solutions for unmet needs.
Opportunities to Understand Diaper Access in Your Own Context
Universities should assume that where there are students, there are student-caregivers. And where there are student-caregivers, there is diaper need. Universities should assume diaper access is a necessity and work to better understand drivers of diaper need among student-caregivers and preferences students have for how diaper access can be achieved.
The Role of the University in Addressing Diaper Need: Call to Action
Meeting the material needs of students is critical for students to achieve their academic and career goals. University stakeholders can consider several questions to understand how to respond based on their own context.
Understanding the Population
- Who are student caregivers at your university?
- What unique roles do they face in their dual roles?
- What on-campus and off-campus spaces do they frequent?
- How do students’ caregiving experiences enhance the student body?
Considerations for Integration and Feasibility
Map the current resources available to you on campus. Identify the assets of campus partners and offices. Identify existing resources that student caregivers may also need. Work with many people and offices across campus to co-design the distribution process.
- What existing programs do students trust and reliably access? How could you integrate diaper supply with these existing programs?
- a)Would these help connect students to other relevant services?
- What efforts can you create across campus to ensure diaper access is not stigmatized?
- What educational campaigns can you launch at your university to increase awareness of diaper access?
Considerations for Scalability & Sustainability
- How might the demand on your campus grow or change over time?
- What donor bases or off-campus organizations may be able to partner to continue to fund the effort?
- How can students become advocates for the diaper bank?
- What places or spaces on campus do students go to learn about resources?
- Are there students who may need diapers that do not frequent your ‘main’ campus? How can you increase access to them?
