If she were willing to delay graduate school for four years, her daughter would be in school all day, and she could do her classes and some part time work then. She would only have childcare expenses for a few hours after school. That is supposing she doesn't decide to have another child in that time frame without the benefit of marriage.
Our second son got partial grants for his first two years in college, and loans for the rest of it. He finished with a double major in 3 1/2 years, then was concerned about paying for Grad school. SirKit laughed and said you DON'T pay for Grad School; you get grants for that. He's in a 6 yr. PhD program in Computer Science, and DID get a grant for all six years. So when he finishes that program, he'll start paying off his undergraduate loans.
We are very out of the mainstream when it comes to college expenses. WE don't pay for our kids' college; we already paid for private schools, or homeschooled the younger two for the high school years. When it comes to college, they can get loans. We help them with day to day expenses, and put it on the family tab. We've given them a cap of $10,000 each for 'gifts' while in college. This way they don't have to work and expend that mental energy away from their education. The rest is on their dime. We believe that they will pay more attention to their studies if THEY are paying for it.
We told them a long time ago that we'll not put ourselves in poverty while in retirement just so they can go to college. Besides, we paid for our own college (at least SirKit did; my Mama worked at the Univ., so I was able to go tuition-free, and lived at home). He did Grad School on a grant and got a Masters and Phd, while I worked to help pay the rent, maintenance on the car, etc. and put a little in the bank. We had our first baby in his last year of Grad school, so that helped winnow down that savings. But we planned for that.