Education Department delays are putting parenting college students in a bind

There are many differences between Carmina Garcia and Mahogany Ann-Fowler.

One attends a community college; the other goes to a regional university. Garcia lives in Arizona; Ann-Fowler is based in Pennsylvania. Garcia studies nursing; Ann-Fowler wants to be an architect.

But two key similarities have them in tough situations. Both are moms of young kids. And both are unsure what they'll do in the fall if a federal childcare program they've come to rely on disappears about a month into the semester, as their colleges have warned.

On the heels of the U.S. Department of Education cutting its workforce in half in March, grant applications for at least a half-dozen federal programs for colleges have been delayed, according to experts. One of those affected is the Child Care Access Means Parents in School, or CCAMPIS, grant.

Read more: Education Dept. layoffs by the numbers: Which staff were ousted, where cuts hit hardest