Drawing on a literature review, feedback from subject-matter experts, and interviews with staff at leading colleges, the authors identify the six core features that characterize promising approaches to student basic needs support. The authors' goal for this report is to provide guidance to community college leadership and staff on these core features and how colleges can adopt these features into their student basic needs support approaches.

Promising Approaches to Student Basic Needs Support

Evidence from Leading Colleges and the Literature

Jenna W. Kramer, Isaiah Simmons, Amanda Perez, Lindsay Daugherty

ResearchPublished Jun 2, 2025

Many community college students across the country face financial constraints and unmet basic needs for food and housing. Basic needs insecurity is associated with negative academic outcomes, and many colleges now view such basic needs supports as food pantries and emergency aid as a core strategy for supporting student success. The goal of this report is to provide clear guidance to community college leadership and staff on promising features that colleges should build into their basic needs support approaches.

The authors identified six core features of strong basic needs support approaches at community colleges: (1) comprehensive basic needs supports; (2) dedicated basic needs supports staff and partnerships; (3) broad outreach efforts; (4) streamlined intake and case management; (5) an institutional culture that prioritizes basic needs support; (6) and data-informed practices. To identify these features, the authors conducted a literature review, consulted five national experts on basic needs evidence, and interviewed staff and leadership at 16 community colleges identified as leaders in basic needs support across California, Colorado, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. The evidence from interviews illustrates how leading community colleges have been implementing these features. The authors also describe the federal, state, and system initiatives that helped to support college efforts.

Key Findings

  • Leading community colleges aspire to provide a robust set of supports to meet varying student needs, but there can be barriers to delivering some more-intensive supports (e.g., housing assistance, child care).
  • To ensure the capacity for robust basic needs support, leading community colleges rely on dedicated staff with case management experience, internal partnerships with other support programs, and external partnerships.
  • To support broad awareness of basic needs supports, leading community colleges leverage broad virtual and in-person outreach strategies, and often depend on referrals to “trusted advisors,” such as other students, faculty, and advisors.
  • Leading community colleges focus on making supports as accessible and streamlined as possible, though the specific approaches to delivering accessible services can vary.
  • To provide robust basic needs supports, leading community colleges have to leverage funding, leadership support, and broad staff buy-in.
  • Community colleges and other stakeholders need more evidence on the effectiveness of basic needs approaches (including which practices and features lead to improved student outcomes) to inform their efforts.

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Kramer, Jenna W., Isaiah Simmons, Amanda Perez, and Lindsay Daugherty, Promising Approaches to Student Basic Needs Support: Evidence from Leading Colleges and the Literature. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3771-3.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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