Classes, exams and homework are the life of any typical college student. However, students who are also parents have many more responsibilities than regular students.
“My son was born during finals week of my junior year at BYU-Idaho, and because my husband was also still in school and childcare didn't seem to fit within our budget, I've since reduced my credit load by about six credits per semester just to give myself more flexibility to be home with my son,” said Jadree Farmer, a senior at BYU-Idaho and a mother.
Like Farmer, many BYU-Idaho student-parents find it difficult to balance caring for their children with their courseloads.
The Idaho Child Care Program, or ICCP provides financial resources to student-parents through the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. However, it is currently on a pause and not accepting new applicants.
This inspired Rachel Wilcox, senior and mother to 22-month-old Rhett, to seek solutions for BYU-Idaho parents.
“If you're a student and you're pregnant right now and you have two years left of your degree, you have no resources right now in the state of Idaho because that was your resource to be able to get funding towards childcare and the university doesn't offer anything,” Wilcox said. “So, you're basically left without any resources to help pay for childcare and it's just a situation that leads to a lot of mothers specifically dropping out.”
Wilcox has been in contact with university officials regarding proposals she wrote in an effort to help other struggling BYU-Idaho parents.
“The very first proposal is super simple,” Wilcox said. “It's just for BYU-Idaho to get a website page and the website page would be to give resources and give information to students who are parents. It would basically have information about the daycares in Rexburg, all of the local daycares, what their rates are, the age ranges that they accept and then it would also talk about ICCP. The second proposal is for the school to adopt either a childcare grant or a childcare voucher program. And it's really nice for the university as well, because they're able to help students get the resources they need to go out into the community, which is also benefiting the Rexburg community.”
The university has yet to make a decision on the proposals, but faculty members like the senior associate dean of students, the college dean and several professors have voiced their support. Wilcox has since created a petition including other proposals that have been rejected that she hopes will be considered in the future. The petition is for current and former BYU-Idaho students, their parents, university faculty and Rexburg residents to sign and show their support.
Farmer and 260 other people support the petition.
“I think these proposals would provide invaluable resources to many young families who are looking to live within their means while also staying dedicated to their schoolwork,” Farmer said.
You can find Wilcox’s petition change.org/byuichildcare. Comments are encouraged.