Leandra’s Law: DWI With a Child in the Car

What is Leandra’s Law?

Driving under the influence with a child fifteen years of age or younger in the vehicle. It is a class E felony on a first offense, with no prior conviction required.

The provision sits at Vehicle and Traffic Law 1192(2-a)(b) and applies to offenses committed on or after 18 December 2009. It was named for an eleven year old killed in a crash caused by an intoxicated driver.

For most people charged under it, the shock is that a first arrest, with no record and no accident, is a felony. Everything about the case is different as a result.

What exactly does the prosecution have to prove?

Two things, and only two:

1. A violation of the DWI statute, and
2. A passenger who was fifteen years of age or younger

That is the entire offense. Three consequences follow that people find hard to accept:

• No injury is required. Nobody has to be hurt. There does not have to be an accident at all.
• No bad driving beyond the DWI is required. The child’s presence supplies the aggravating element by itself.
• The child does not have to be yours. The statute speaks to a child who is a passenger, not to a parental relationship.

Does it only apply to alcohol?

No, and this is widely misunderstood. The provision reaches violations of the ordinary DWI subdivisions and also driving while ability impaired by drugs and by the combined influence of drugs and alcohol.

That matters more since February 2026, when the Court of Appeals held that “impaired” is interpreted consistently across the statute, so drug impairment is measured by the same “to any extent” standard used for alcohol rather than a higher one. A case built on drugs is not harder for the prosecution to prove than one built on alcohol.

What are the penalties?

	Leandra’s Law, first offense	Ordinary first-offense DWI
Classification	Class E felony	Misdemeanor
Fine	$1,000 to $5,000	$500 to $1,000
Maximum incarceration	4 years state prison	1 year local jail
License revocation	1 year minimum	6 months minimum
Ignition interlock	Mandatory	Required for the common charges
Criminal record	Felony, permanent	Misdemeanor

The Driver Responsibility Assessment of 250 dollars a year for three years applies on top, along with mandatory surcharges.

Does a felony conviction mean prison?

Not automatically. Four years is the maximum, not a required sentence, and these cases are frequently resolved with probation or a conditional discharge depending on the record, the facts and what the defendant does before sentencing.

What is not optional is the ignition interlock. The court must impose probation or a conditional discharge with an interlock on any vehicle the defendant owns or operates. The order runs for a minimum of twelve months, although the restriction can end on proof that the device was installed and properly maintained for at least six months, unless the court ordered longer.

Alcohol and substance abuse evaluation is standard, and completing treatment before sentencing rather than after is often what makes a non-prison outcome realistic.

Will child protective services get involved?

Very likely, and this is the part that frightens families most.

Where the driver is the child’s parent, guardian, custodian or otherwise legally responsible for the child, the statute requires a report under the social services law. That triggers a separate child protective investigation that runs on its own track, in a different forum, with a different standard of proof.

Two things follow:

• The criminal case and the child protective case do not decide each other. A favorable criminal outcome does not end the neglect inquiry, and the family court standard is lower.
• Anything said to a caseworker can travel into the criminal case. Explaining yourself to sound cooperative is how the state’s version of events gets written.

If both proceedings are live, they need to be handled with each other in view rather than separately.

What changes procedurally because it is a felony?

• A grand jury becomes involved. The case is prosecuted by indictment unless the defendant waives that and consents to a superior court information.
• The case changes courts. Arraignment happens in District Court, and after indictment the defendant is arraigned again in County Court.
• State prison is on the table rather than local jail, and probation terms run longer.
• The collateral consequences are different in kind. A felony conviction affects professional licensing, firearm rights, immigration status and employment in ways a misdemeanor does not.

What tends to matter in these cases?

No two cases resolve alike, and nobody can responsibly promise an outcome. What is worth understanding is where the real questions usually sit:

• Was the stop lawful? In New York, stopping a car for a traffic infraction requires probable cause, not merely reasonable suspicion. If the stop fails, what followed is at risk.
• Does the chemical test hold up? Calibration, the two hour rule and how the test was administered are all litigable.
• The child’s age. The line is fifteen or younger. A sixteen year old passenger does not trigger the provision, and age is a fact the prosecution has to prove.
• The refusal track. If a chemical test was refused, a separate DMV proceeding is already running with its own deadline, and it does not wait for the criminal case.

How is this different from aggravated DWI at .18?

They sit in the same subdivision of the statute and are constantly confused.

	Aggravated DWI, .18 or more	Leandra’s Law
Trigger	A chemical test reading of .18 or higher	A passenger 15 or younger
First offense classification	Misdemeanor	Class E felony
Fine	$1,000 to $2,500	$1,000 to $5,000
Maximum	1 year local jail	4 years state prison

Both raise the minimum license revocation to a year. But a high reading alone does not make a first offense a felony, and the child passenger provision does not require any particular reading at all.

What is an ignition interlock and how does it work?

A breath-testing device wired into the vehicle’s ignition. The car will not start unless the driver provides a sample below a set alcohol level, and it prompts for further samples at intervals while driving.

Practical points people are rarely told in advance:

• The driver pays for it. Installation, monthly monitoring and removal are the defendant’s cost, though there is a process for those who genuinely cannot afford it.
• It applies to any vehicle you own or operate, not just the one you were driving.
• It is monitored. Failed or missed samples are reported and can become a violation of probation or conditional discharge in their own right.
• The clock runs from the earlier of sentencing or installation, so installing before sentencing can shorten the practical burden.

Does the license come back after the revocation ends?

Not automatically. Revocation ending makes you eligible to apply, not entitled to a license.

The Department of Motor Vehicles runs its own relicensing review, separate from anything the court orders, which looks back twenty five years at a driver’s alcohol and drug related history and includes a lifetime review. Those regulations were upheld by the Appellate Division, Second Department, in a case arising from Nassau County.

For someone with any prior alcohol related incident, the licensing consequence can outlast the criminal sentence by years.

Where are these cases heard in Nassau County?

Arraignment takes place at Nassau County District Court, 99 Main Street in Hempstead, which holds preliminary jurisdiction over felonies. After indictment the case moves to Nassau County Court at 262 Old Country Road in Mineola.

Any related child protective proceeding is heard separately in Nassau County Family Court, on its own schedule.

Related: the difference between DWI and DWAI, felony DWI, and DWI defense in Nassau County.