The resources that federal financial aid, state financial aid, and federal public benefits programs provide, when they operate effectively, are critical to older students and students with children. This report seeks to shed light on how these programs are functioning by analyzing data and policies across four states--Colorado, Missouri, North Carolina, and Texas. We analyzed the designs of student financial aid programs to see how many state financial aid resources older students and student parents receive. We chose these states as test cases because they had state representative data in the 2018 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, a survey administered by the U.S. Department of Education, and they were geographically, politically, and demographically diverse. In addition to examining financial aid programs, we also looked at states' public benefit program designs and policies and we conducted focus groups with older students and student parents in each state. This additional analysis provides a view of what it is like to rely on the system meant to support students to and through college, where it is falling short, and why. We found that Colorado, while far from perfect, designed its financial aid and safety net programs to provide the most robust support for adult and parenting students to enroll in and attend its institutions of higher education. Missouri and Texas provided the weakest support. North Carolina fell somewhere in the middle. We end this report by suggesting several recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders looking to design or reform state financial aid and safety net programs. Within budget constraints, they should adjust eligibility criteria for state aid programs so older students and student parents have the same access to grant programs as students leaving high school. Where states have flexibility in administering federal public benefit programs, they should use that flexibility to ease eligibility criteria and expand access. And they should communicate opportunities and fund supports to help older students and student parents to go to college and access public benefits.