PARENTAL FINANICAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR MINOR’S BEHAVIOR
Background: Often times there are financial obligations related to a child’s behavior. It is confusing to parents and corrections officials what the financial responsibility is for parents.
Information: There are a couple of different ways to interpret the responsibility of parents as it relates to their child’s behavior.
- Parents are expected to be financially responsible for the costs of care, examination, or treatment for their children. The statute which addresses financially responsibility for costs of care is (M.S. 260B.331). Parent’s total income and resources are used to determine the parental responsibility for the cost of care. See that statute for more detail.
- Parents can be held financially responsible for restitution owed by their minor child. The statute which addresses this issue is statute section (M.S. 540.18). Parents can be held liable for up to $1,000 for the damages or money owed by their child.
- Some counties hold parents responsible for fees associated to probation costs related to their children. Examples of this are correctional fees or fees related to drug testing, etc. The county in which you reside may file revenue recapture against you, or you may be referred to collections, if they have determined that you are the parent responsible for the payment and the fee has not been paid in an allowed timeframe. More information can be found at http://www.taxes.state.mn.us/collection/other_supporting_content/revrecapture.shtml
Summary: Although a juvenile needs to be held responsible for their behavior, the parent is or can be held financially responsible for the behavior as well. It should be noted that things can differ from county to county, and parents are advised to become acquainted with local policy/practice.
Authored by the 2008 MCA Juvenile Justice Committee: Shelley McBride-Chair, Paul Ahearn, Christian Anderson, Andrea Emery, Travis Gransee, Ryan Jaehnert, Sherry Johnson, Luke Johnston, John Marsolek, Jackie Nichols, Jennifer Nimps, Brian Stoll, Terry Thomas, Kristin Tuenge, Richard Quigley, Lynette Wellman