Student Parent Support Initiative
Helping colleges and community organizations develop and implement services that support student parents across the state.
The Minnesota Student Parent Support Initiative (SPSI) aims to provide much-needed support to entities and institutions to assist college-age pregnant and current parenting students in successfully earning a postsecondary credential.
As a competitive grant program to be administered in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Health, postsecondary institutions, professional organizations, and community-based organizations may apply for funds to develop and implement services and programs that would support the unique needs of parenting students across the state.
Grants will be used to offer services to support the academic goals, health, and well-being of student parents. The statute governing the grant program is located in Minnesota Statutes 136A.915 Student Parent Support Initiative https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/136A.915).
Program Goals
SPSI aims to bridge the opportunity gap by increasing access to crucial resources and services, ensuring that children have a healthy start and families have access to affordable and quality child care and early education; access to mental health supports; and stable housing. By helping stabilize their needs in college, this initiative sets the foundation for overall future success.
By supporting parenting students, Minnesota invests in greater economic stability through:
- Student parents’ future participation in the workforce
- Increased income taxes
- Savings in public assistance programs
Student parents face multiple barriers to college enrollment, persistence, and completion. These barriers include, but are not limited to, constraints with time and money, lack of child care resources and academic support, diminished motivation or may feel excluded from traditional campus support services.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, re-enrollment rates of students with children dropped dramatically. Additionally, for students who reported having dependents on their FAFSA, applications are down 13 percent over previous years.
The best way to ensure a child is successful in college is to help their parent succeed. Parental education is linked to upward mobility in their children through increased lifetime earnings, improved reading and mathematics skills, improved health, increased college enrollment, persistence, and completion, in addition to decreased incarceration, teenage pregnancy, and poverty rates. The SPSI will work with institutions to provide pregnant students and students of young children information and support regarding available and new resources to help them succeed.
Eligible grant applicants are institutions/organizations located within Minnesota and fall into one or more of the following categories:
- Minnesota postsecondary institutions
- Professional organizations
- Community-based organizations
- Political Subdivisions
- Tribal Sovereign Nations
- Child Care Providers
Eligible services include:
- Program development costs (including staff salaries)
- Costs related to the start-up of on-campus child care
- Health and Wellness activities for pregnant and parenting students and/or their children
- Evaluation and data collection
- Direct financial assistance to pregnant and parenting students including:
- Scholarships
- Basic needs support (food, housing, diapers, and other support that is not an emergency grant)
- Emergency grants as defined by Federal Student Aid and
- Expenses related to child care
Postsecondary institutions may act as the fiscal agents in partnership with a local nongovernmental agency, child care center, or other organization that serves student parents.
Based upon current grant utilization among grantees and received appropriations, up to $5,324,000 is available for this grant round. Contracts will extend to cover a two-year period; funded projects will begin in Fall 2026 (the date that the contract is fully executed), and cover expenses incurred through June 30, 2028.
The maximum grant amount is $250,000 for the biennium; $125,000 per year.
Applications for Fiscal Year 2027 SPSI Grants will open on April 20, 2026. It will close on May 21, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. Central Time.
- April 20, 2026 - Request for Proposals available to applicants
April 30, 2026 (11:00 a.m. CT) - Student Parent Support Initiative Grant Proposal Workshop – Virtual (see teams link below)
Microsoft Teams meeting
Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/24262792210582?p=Nl3poHCOsewA3xtVNC
Meeting ID: 242 627 922 105 82
Passcode: 7bR6dn3U
- May 14, 2026 (4:00 p.m. CT) - Technical Question Deadline
- May 21, 2026 (4:00 p.m. CT) - Proposal Submission Deadline
- July 6, 2026 - Award Notice to Applicants
- July 15, 2026 (1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. CT) - Mandatory Grantee Orientation – Grantees will receive a virtual Teams invitation after their award notice.
Proposals must be submitted by 4:00 p.m. CT on May 21, 2026 through the OHE Competitive Online Grants Management system.
If you need assistance with the grants management system, please email GWI.OHE@state.mn.us.
- Central Lakes College
- Project Title: CLC Student Parent Support Initiative
- College of St. Scholastica
- Project Title: CSS Student Parent Support Initiative
- Healthy Community Initiative
- Project Title: Rice County Postsecondary Student Parents Support Program
- Herzing University
- Project Title: Building Family Foundations: Leveling the Field for Student Parents (BFF)
- Jeremiah Program
- Project Title: Whole Family Support for Student Parent Single Moms in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Rochester
- Metropolitan State University
- Project Title: Student Parent Support Initiative
- Minneapolis Community and Technical College
- Project Title: Student Parent Support Initiative Grant
- Minnesota State University, Mankato
- Project Title: Maverick Student Parent Support
- North Hennepin Community College
- Project Title: Parent Support Program
- Raise the Barr
- Project Title: Dunwoody Raise The Barr Stable Housing Cohort
- Saint Catherine University
- Project Title: St. Catherine University Student Parent Support Initiative
- University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
- Project Title: SPHC 2Gen Basic Needs and Child Enrichment Grants
- Dual Training Grant
- Emergency Assistance for Postsecondary Students (EAPS) Grant
- Early Childhood Family Education Teacher Shortage Grants
- Hunger Free Campus Grants
- Hunger Free Campus Equipment Grants
- Inclusive Higher Education Grant
- Intervention for College Attendance Grant
- Spinal Cord Injury and Traumatic Brain Injury Research Grant
- Student Parent Support Initiative Grant
- Use of Force Training Grant
- Previous Competitive Grant Programs