Are college students covered by their parents' insurance policies?

If you've got a child headed off to college in the fall, it's not too early to start looking into their insurance coverage while they're away. I found a handy little column in the June issue of Westways, so I'll share what they say:

• Health insurance - Most health insurance policies cover dependents up to 25 years of age if they're in school full-time. You'll want to check your own plan for its specifics, though, and talk with your child about what "full-time" means. (One dropped class could mean no health insurance - yikes!) You should also take a look at what out-of-network costs might be if your child's school is far away. If your policy doesn't cover your child, or you're worried about those out-of-network costs, you can purchase a temporary policy - I seem to recall my schools always offered one, though I never bought it (they always seemed a little shady to me - maybe they were actually catastrophic policies? - so make sure you read the fine print).
• Property insurance - If you can still claim your child as a dependent, she will most likely be deemed part of your household and her possessions will be covered under your homeowner's policy while she's away at school. But the coverage might be limited, so check your policy and decide whether renter's insurance might be a better bet. In this situation, I would probably call up my insurance agent for guidance.

One final note: If you're bearing any kind of responsibility for your child's college education, you may want to make sure your life insurance coverage is adequate. It's occurred to me that our very first term policies will expire just as Alex heads off to college, and the polices that we acquired shortly after his birth will expire while he's still in school. I expect our finances to be such that we won't need additional policies at that point, but if we aren't as financially secure as I hope we'll be, I'll consider five-year term policies so that money won't be a source of stress in the event of the unthinkable.