When you send your child to college, your goal is for them to get a better education and to be set up to enter their preferred career. The one thing that you warned them about before going to school was to stay out of trouble with the law, because an arrest or damage to their record could be harmful.
If your child has violated a law and now faces accusations of a DUI or other crimes, it’s important that you take action to help protect them. Like you may already believe, criminal convictions can jeopardize your child’s education as well as their future beyond it.
How does a conviction jeopardize a college student’s education?
The answer to that is that it depends on the charges and what they’re for. For example, misdemeanor charges may not influence your child’s right to seek federal aid, but they could lose school scholarships, be expelled or suspended or face other repercussions. If the school has a student handbook, you should review it to see how your child’s actions could influence any aid that they have as well as their right to enrollment.
If your child faces a felony charge, then you also need to worry about the potential for that charge to negatively influence their right to federal aid. Additionally, these charges tend to have longer jail or prison sentences, so there is a risk that your child may end up in jail or prison for a year or longer. This in itself will damage their college education, as they will need to put it on hold and may lose their spot in their preferred program.
What should you do if your child is facing charges?
Whether your child is a minor or over the age of 18 or 21, you need to take the same approach. You need to figure out the truth about what happened and then work to build a strong defense. A good defense may help protect your child’s rights and put them in a better position where they can still protect their college career. If they are convicted, there is a real chance that they could hinder their education.
