Short-Term Consequences of Parents' Criminal Legal System Involvement for Children's Academic Performance

Children from disadvantaged backgrounds disproportionately experience parental criminal legal system (CLS) involvement, potentially hindering their academic achievement. Using linked administrative data from Wisconsin, this study examines the implications of parental CLS involvement for the educational outcomes of 137,938 children ages 7-15 (49% female, 60% White, 13% Black, 16% Other, 11% Hispanic). Using a future treatment comparison group - children whose parents will, but are not currently, involved with CLS - we find that associations between parent CLS involvement and children's test scores are driven by selection bias. Results from first differences and child-specific fixed effects linear regressions similarly suggest no significant association between parent CLS involvement and children's test scores. Patterns do not differ when considering parent incarceration versus parent CLS involvement without incarceration. On the whole, this study suggests that children with CLS-involved parents have below-average test scores but parent CLS involvement itself does not worsen children's educational outcomes.