Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) is a federal competitive grant program that allows college and university campuses to operate on-site childcare or offer childcare vouchers to their student-parents. Over 100 community colleges currently have these grants, providing support to parenting students in their regions.

To this point in the appropriations process, the House and the Senate have yet to agree on CCAMPIS funding. While the Senate has planned to fund the program for Fiscal Year 2026 at the same rate as before, the House has not allocated any funds for the program. The House appropriations committee justified this action, stating that CCAMPIS is a duplication of other childcare programming, such as Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block Grant.

Wanting to demonstrate the impact of this program on students and communities, ACCT invited colleges to visit Washington DC during the first two weeks of December. We welcomed college presidents, student affairs professionals, childcare facilities experts, and student-parents from community colleges across the nation. These individuals arrived with the mission to share with their members of Congress their stories on how CCAMPIS forever changed the trajectory of not just their lives, but also their families’ future, and create a unified understanding of the power of this program in both the House and the Senate. 

Their stories highlighted several themes:

• CCAMPIS is not a duplication of other federal and state childcare programs as only student-parents qualify for CCAMPIS, and they may not be eligible for other programs, or are put on years-long waitlists. Additionally, CCAMPIS grants can be used to provide childcare that fits non-traditional schedules, such as nursing students who have long clinicals.
• Remaining true to their nature, colleges work hard to creatively fund student support programs. In the case of CCAMPIS, some are braiding federal, state, and local funding together to keep the doors of their childcare facilities open when CCAMPIS or other funds expire. This tactic, however, is reported as unsustainable, and campuses need high-impact federal solutions and support.
• Even with creative strategies, colleges are at times deciding to go into a financial deficit to avoid turning away students in need of childcare.
• In the rural context, other state-level childcare programs may be localized to a limited geographical radius, making parents who commute long distances ineligible for services. The same limitation is true for community colleges with satellite campuses that span an entire state.
• On-campus childcare directors mentioned that their facilities not only offer childcare, but they also offer information on where student-parents can get access to other support programs, they are places where student-parents can study, and they also serve as training centers for the next generation of childcare professionals. 

The stories that were told did not involve just the student, but they highlighted that CCAMPIS serves two generations at once. CCAMPIS provides support to student-parents that then leads to program completion and graduation, as well as offering their children high-quality childcare. Overall, the transformative power of CCAMPIS is undeniable. Click here to see a story of how CCAMPIS changed a student's life at Florence-Darlington Technical College.

Genesis Santiago is the Senior Government Relations Associate at ACCT

Photo Credit: Florence-Darlington Technical College CCAMPIS Site