The spouse is employment-authorized incident to E-2 status and may work anywhere, including in the business. Children under 21 hold derivative status, may attend school, and may not work.
One household, two different permissions
Hypothetical example: a Hampton couple own the laundry jointly, so both are treaty investors in their own right, and their fifteen and seventeen-year-old children would hold derivative status. Where only one spouse is the investor, the other holds E-2 spouse status and is employment-authorized incident to it, which means work inside or outside the enterprise without a separate grant. The children may attend school and may not be employed, including in the family business, which surprises families who expect a teenager to help on Saturdays. The seventeen-year-old should also be planned for: derivative status ends at 21, and if the family is still in the United States then, a change to student status or another basis has to be arranged well before that birthday.
Derivative status depends on being unmarried and under twenty-one, and there is no conditional residence or immigrant petition running in the background to convert into something durable, because this category leads nowhere permanent on its own. Explain any intended operating work separately from passive ownership and review the actual activity rather than assuming a family property arrangement authorizes everyone to run the business.