In most instances, parents are not notified of a student's alleged offenses or disciplinary issues at a college unless it reaches a certain point in the process. But in most instances, there's no, say, obligation on the school's part to do so. Even in the more serious cases, where say a student's accused of non-consensual sex or rape, the school is not necessarily notifying the accused party's parents. Some students make the unfortunate mistake of going through the process on their own. They find themselves being found responsible, sanctioned, say expelled from school, and then they're telling their parents at the 12th hour essentially.
The best thing a young person can often do is to tell their parents as soon as they find out there's any kind of concern at the school. Parents can help. They may be upset about the circumstances obviously, but they're better off being involved sooner rather than later, although a school often doesn't have an obligation to do so. There's going to be some instances where a school notifies the parents, say depending on the specific offense, it could be an alcohol violation say, where parental notice would be required by the school policies, but that's generally the exception and not the rule.
