The authors of this report evaluated Single Stop, a student basic needs program. The research featured a randomized controlled trial across ten colleges to assess the implementation and impacts of the program. Few students took up services, and most students with access to Single Stop did not receive direct support. The authors of this report unpack factors contributing to implementation and take-up challenges in the study colleges.

Connecting Students to Basic Needs Support

An Evaluation of Single Stop Across Ten Colleges

Lindsay Daugherty, Jenna W. Kramer, Louis T. Mariano, Clare Cady, Heather Gomez-Bendaña, Tiffany Berglund, Samantha Ryan, Michelle Bongard, Joshua Eagan, Christopher Joseph Doss

ResearchPublished Jun 2, 2025

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Many U.S. college students are unable to meet their basic needs and struggle to secure regular food and housing. Colleges across the United States have recognized the importance of helping to meet the basic needs of their students and are increasingly providing support to students in the form of emergency aid, food pantries, and assistance with public benefits. Single Stop is a program that college staff can use to help students with applications for public benefits, make referrals to community resources, and connect to free tax support.

The authors of this report implemented a randomized controlled trial to assess the efficacy of Single Stop and carried out this research through ten different schools in Colorado and North Carolina. By leveraging Single Stop system data, administrative data, and a follow-up survey of students, the authors found that take-up of Single Stop's services was low. In this report, the authors identify the low take-up as evidence that Single Stop did not reach students as intended and did not deliver a meaningful intervention, and do not see their outcome findings as evidence of the effects of a successful implementation of the Single Stop program. The authors describe mixed success with implementation and barriers colleges faced. The authors then explore how the focus of the services, the design and delivery of the intervention, and the COVID-19 pandemic may have contributed to low take-up.

Key Findings

Implementing new college basic needs support programs meaningfully can be a challenge, particularly during such crises as the COVID-19 pandemic

  • Implementation challenges were not unique to Single Stop; it can often take time for colleges to build capacity for new support programs.
  • The virtual delivery of most college supports in 2021 may have hindered implementation, and staff and leadership faced competing priorities.

Building up awareness of and trust in basic needs supports requires sustained outreach through a variety of approaches

  • Outreach by case managers via email or text often went unanswered or forgotten by students.
  • Other campus-wide outreach approaches can be valuable but are often restricted in experimental studies.

Colleges may want to focus more-intensive supports (e.g., public benefit application support, case management) on a smaller subset of students

  • The study used baseline data on financial and basic need indicators and use of public benefits to screen students into the study, but excluded only 16 percent of survey respondents.
  • There may be a smaller subset of students who can benefit most from such an intervention, including students facing the highest levels of basic needs insecurity.

Postsecondary institutions may prioritize basic needs services that are quick and accessible for students and staff to use and directly connect students to resources

  • The administrative burden for students and staff may have limited implementation and take-up of Single Stop.
  • College staff and students may prioritize basic needs supports that are simple to access and provide direct support, such as food pantries and emergency aid.

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Daugherty, Lindsay, Jenna W. Kramer, Louis T. Mariano, Clare Cady, Heather Gomez-Bendaña, Tiffany Berglund, Samantha Ryan, Michelle Bongard, Joshua Eagan, and Christopher Joseph Doss, Connecting Students to Basic Needs Support: An Evaluation of Single Stop Across Ten Colleges. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3771-1.html.
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This research was sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (U.S. Department of Education) and conducted by RAND Education and Labor.

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