<p>The situation at hand is somewhat complicated, so please try to bear with me. My oldest daughter will be starting as a college Sophomore this Fall. My D has dealt with the law once as a minor, in our previous country of residence. The crime is the equivalent of a felony in the States. According to our lawyer at the time, my D was clear to answer no to all questions regarding criminal convictions. If there were any questions relating to being arrested, she would have to answer yes. There were no such questions. As such, my D went through the Common App, and answered “no” to the question regarding convictions.</p>
<p>The University my D will be attending in the Fall (if it matters, the university is in Colorado) has started requiring admitted students to undergo background checks through a third party company. Similar to most screening companies, international checks are conducted when the student has previously lived in another country.</p>
<p>There are tight restrictions on juvenile records in the country that this occurred, but after speaking with the third party doing the screening, there is a chance the screening will reveal at the minimum that my D has had police contact in the past.</p>
<p>I have contacted several lawyers and the most common answer is that my D has not answered anything incorrectly. With that said, I want to make sure my D is not doing anything here to jeopardize her acceptance.</p>
<p>At this point, what would be the best course of action for my D to take?</p>
<p>Are they doing the equivalent of a CORI check? That might show an arrest, or it might not. You can do your own CORI check here in the US, so maybe you can do one in the country involved, as well. Your daughter or you could also contact the court involved and see what is on record.</p>
<p>That said, the question on the application asked about convictions. I don’t think they can take action and rescind acceptance or aid based on an arrest, if there was no conviction, unless that is the wording of the question on the application. I don’t remember the wording.</p>
<p>Does your lawyer think your daughter should be proactive and talk to the college? There may be no need, but if your own investigations turn up anything problematic on the record, that would be another thing to consider.</p>
<p>Your only other option is, as Jym said, to wait and see.</p>
<p>Tough situation for the nerves, and I hope it all works out.</p>
<p>Even if it occurred in this country, a juvenile adjudication is not the same as a “conviction.” So, sit tight and try not to worry. Even if the school were to discover the prior incident, they could not say that your daughter answered the question dishonestly.</p>
<p>Was she convicted of anything? Assuming not, then I would sit tight. She answered everything appropriately. I find it odd that this school is conducting background checks on all admitted students. That’s got to be incredibly expensive.</p>
<p>compmom After a fairly lengthy conversation with the provider running the background check, they will go through the appropriate law enforcement agencies in our previous country to complete the background check. I will contact the court tomorrow, but I am almost certain they would not disclose this information over the phone, even to my D. As you have said, one of our options may be to have my D complete a check on herself.</p>
<p>The lawyer did not make any recommendations regarding speaking to the college. It is a complex issue because of the international aspect.</p>
<p>Steve The Common Application question reads “Have you ever been adjudicated guilty or convicted of a misdemeanor, felony, or other crime? Note that you are not required to answer “yes” to this question, or provide an explanation, if the criminal adjudication or conviction has been expunged, sealed, annulled, pardoned, destroyed, erased, impounded, or otherwise ordered by a court to be kept confidential.”</p>
<p>This is a private school; possibly this is standard procedure throughout private schools. The school itself, in addition to the Common Application question, asked the following questions:</p>
<p>Suzy On a very strict wording of the law, she was not “convicted”.</p>
<p>I am baffled that the college is asking so many questions. These are questions that are usually asked during law enforcement applications. It is certainly odd. I spoke to a number of other mothers and all of them said their D’s were never asked such questions.</p>
<p>I think the question now is whether she truthfully answered the questions posed not just on the Common App but the questions you linked. If your attorney reviewed those and believed a truthful answer was no, then I still think you are OK. Another question is how the foreign country’s courts handle criminal records of minors. Do they permit anyone to see those? Do they permit expungement and was that done?</p>
<p>I imagine those background checks could be a lot cheaper than a lawsuit if someone had lied on the application and then caused an incident on campus.</p>
<p>I think the background checks are being done more frequently on students who have lived in foreign countries. It’s an anti-terrorist thing.</p>
<p>It is extremely risky and there has been litigation in some states if questions are asked about arrests because this can lead to discrimination against groups that may be the target of more arrests than others.</p>
<p>I think your daughter will be fine. I would see what happens and raise holy hell if the school tries to do anything.</p>
<p>Suzy Unlike the US where records are much easier to get a hold of, in the foreign country, there are strict privacy laws. The records can only be pulled with the consent of the individual (this is not specific to minors). In case of minors, even if they give consent, and law enforcement runs the check and finds ANY negative contact with police (simply an arrest), then law enforcement will not release the results of the check to whoever my D had consented to it being released to. The results would be released to my D only, and at that point, I figure the school/screening company would ask me to provide the results of the check.</p>
<p>MomOfWildChild That is what I originally thought, but then I discovered that the checks are required for all students. It would seem like foreign background checks are almost useless. I’m sure the college could run some sort of check (ie. SSN verification) to ensure the student is a legal resident of the United States, in which case s/he certainly went through immigration. My point is, US immigration has already screened all foreign students and anyone with a serious enough criminal background would not have been allowed into the United States.</p>
<p>It’s quite the complicated situation my D has found herself in. Usually, on College Confidential, we read of stories where one has a record in State A, but will be going to college in State B. While each State may have different laws, I am sure much of it is built around the same system. On the other hand, when dealing with two different countries, the differences in the systems are quite significant.</p>
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