Many parents mistakenly believe their children don't have to worry about insurance until after college graduation, when they traditionally are on their own for the first time.

Parents also might not realize their own policies need a fresh look when classes start. But in fact, going to college is a type of life experience that should prompt a review of insurance coverage. College students encounter numerous risks that often aren't issues when they live under your roof.

An uninsured loss such as theft of a laptop or a sudden illness can deal a devastating blow to a college student's limited bank account or the finances of a parent already struggling with tuition bills.

Below are common insurance scenarios encountered by college students.

Auto insurance

Your daughter has bugged you relentlessly for weeks to take the family car with her to college out of state. Despite visions of seat-belt-less partygoers hanging out the sunroof, you give in.

Now what?

Who insures the car depends on who owns it. If you own it, chances are your daughter is already listed as an additional driver on your policy.

However, you must notify your insurer if the car will be garaged at another location. That could alter your premium, forcing it either up or down. Failure to reveal such a change can jeopardize your next claim.

If your daughter solely owns the title to the car, she'll have to get her own auto policy.

While your rates might drop dramatically if you take your daughter off your policy, she's likely to face high premiums when she's on her own and part of a higher-risk group of young drivers.

It doesn’t matter if your daughter goes to college 10 miles or 100 miles away: If she doesn’t take the car with her but remains your policy, your premiums will still go down if you notify your insurer of her move. That's because your insurer will assume your car will not be driven as much by a young high-risk driver.

Health insurance

Your 19-year-old son, who has diabetes, is moving out of your house to be closer to the community college, where he'll be attending school part-time, working part-time, and playing intramural lacrosse.

Now what?

If you have group health insurance, you likely already have your children on the plan. And that's fine — if your kids live with you or go to college close to home, if they haven't reached an age cutoff as a dependent for your health plan, or if they're going to school full-time.

The first order of business, then, is to find out your plan's age cutoff. Most health plans have an age cutoff for dependent children, commonly 23. That's generally long enough to see them through college. When your kids reach that age, they're automatically dropped from your plan.

A big caveat: The age cutoff typically applies only as long as your child is attending school full-time. So if your plan's cutoff age is 23, but your 19-year-old son attends college only part-time, he may lose coverage. Check with your employee-benefits personnel at work or your insurer directly to find out how your plan defines "dependent children."

If your son has been dropped from your plan, he'll have to find another source of health insurance. COBRA is one option. Federal law allows dependent children to buy an additional 36 months of group health coverage through COBRA when they have been dropped from their parents' group health plan. For details, read Know your COBRA rights.

COBRA premiums can be very expensive, especially on a college budget. But COBRA offers a major advantage to children who have medical conditions, such as diabetes, because it is a surefire way to maintain the same coverage your child had through your health plan, at least temporarily.

Maintaining coverage under COBRA also can help your children qualify for coverage later under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). HIPAA offers important protections against exclusions in coverage if you have pre-existing medical conditions and must change health insurers. For more, read HIPAA: Your rights to health insurance portability.

To further complicate the issue, if you have a managed care plan, such as an HMO, it will have geographical doctor-network limits. That means even if your child remains covered under your HMO when he leaves for college, the coverage might be worthless far away from home and away from the plan's network of providers.

Routine visits to the doctor's office will not be covered if he visits a doctor who is not in the HMO's network, for instance. In that case, the only medical care likely covered is treatment for an emergency.

Thus, if your children have been dropped from your plan because they have reached the age cutoff — even if they move back in with you to to attend school full-time — or if the coverage under your HMO won't apply, or if your family has no health coverage at all, they'll have to shop around for their own health insurance.

They might not have to go too far, though, because most colleges and universities offer student health insurance. See Health plans for college students.

While college health plans are generally affordable, the benefits themselves can vary greatly. In addition, there are plans that will not cover students who are injured while playing intramural sports and others ask for supplementary insurance specific to college athletes.

For example, Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., asks that students choose a supplementary group accident insurance policy on top of a health insurance policy that covers athletes participating in intercollegiate sports. The only exclusion is that the policy doesn’t provide coverage for sports that are played off-season.

The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., provides an intercollegiate-sports health insurance option that includes coverage for a year or for sports that are played during a specific season or semester.

Washington College in Chestertown, Md., offers insurance that covers intramural sports injuries not cover high-risk sports such as skydiving, bungee jumping and parasailing, injuries incurred while participating in a riot, or injuries due to being under the influence without being under a doctor’s care.

Property insurance

Your daughter intends to study mechanical engineering at college and needs a laptop, so you buy her a state-of-the-art computer.

Now what?

Check out buying property insurance for your daughter or add more coverage to your own home insurance coverage. While crime isn't necessarily rampant on college campuses, it's not rare either.

According to California Casualty Management Co. in San Mateo, Calif., your home insurance policy generally covers property away from home, up to a maximum limit of 10 percent of the contents coverage. If your home is insured for $100,000 and the contents are covered for half that amount, this would amount to $50,000. Therefore, property away from home is covered for $5,000 — minus the policy's deductible.

Moreover, where your child lives also plays a role in determining the extent of coverage he or she will receive. If your child lives in an off-campus apartment, your home insurance policy would not apply since most insurance companies believe a child is not part of the household anymore when he moves into an apartment. But, if your child lives in a dorm and is under the age of 26, most of his personal belongings are covered.

However, more expensive items such as computers may require additional coverage. If your policy has a contents-coverage limit of $25,000, your children are protected only up to $2,500. This might not be enough to replace the laptop.

To cover laptops, stereos, televisions, and other expensive items, your college student might need supplemental property insurance. That can be achieved by having them buy their own renters insurance or increasing the limits on your homeowner's policy. Bear in mind that repeated claims made by your child could raise your rates and make it harder to keep or get another policy.

Bob Klein, director of the Center for Risk Management and Insurance Research in Atlanta, says the student's personal property would be covered for theft and the policy's liability coverage also applies to the student.

"The only catch would be if the student must have spent some time in their college residence within the 60 days preceding a theft for the stolen property to be covered. In other words, if the student had property in a rented apartment and for some reason had not been in the apartment at all for more than 2 months prior to a theft, then the theft would not be covered," he says, adding that it’s important to review the language of any policy to determine the extent of coverage for your child's living situation.

College students can also buy their own renters insurance policy, and it can be affordable, even on a college student budget.

For example, a standard renters policy from Assurant for a student living off-campus at Indiana University-Perdue University Indianapolis costs $166 annually and provides $10,000 in personal-property coverage and $50,000 in personal liability coverage.

Does your child have a roommate? Some insurers will let them share a renters policy — and the premiums. Take a detailed inventory of your children's belongings to estimate how much coverage is needed. For more, read The basics of renters insurance.

Life Insurance

What if something happened to you or your spouse? How will your children ever afford to stay in college? If you're paying for your children's education and you want to make sure the money tree won't die with you, review your financial situation. You might already have a sufficient amount of money in savings or other assets. If not, consider buying a term life insurance policy for the duration of your child's college education or adding to the policy you already have. You'll need to take into account a variety of factors:

• How much does tuition cost?
• How much does room and board cost?
• How much does transportation cost?
• What other college expenses will your child have, such as books and supplies?
• Is your child on financial aid or does he have a scholarship?
• How much do you have saved?

Key points

• Students who have sole title to the car must get their own auto policy.
• Your HMO plan probably won't cover your student out-of-state.
• Off-campus students should buy renters insurance.
• Consider increasing your life insurance by the amount of your child's college expenses, dollar-for-dollar.