Quote:
Originally posted by KKING94329
My wife and I divorced several years ago in Missouri. We agreed to joint legal custody/responsibility in the divorce decree. Our daughter is 18 and will enter college this fall. Are both of us legally liable for 50% of her college expenses?
Thank you very much. |
My response:
In Missouri, the parent paying child support can also be ordered to pay for all or a portion of the costs for his or her child to attend college. Sometimes, but not all the time, the parent paying support may be granted relief from a portion of the child support when he or she is also paying for the child to attend college. The child receiving "educational support" has certain duties to he or she must perform to be entitled to receive or to continue to receive both child support and "educational" support.
The child should be enrolled in an institution of vocational or higher education not later than the October 1st following graduation from a secondary school or completion of a graduation equivalence degree program. This may be waived by the Court under special situations.
The child must enroll for and complete at least twelve credit hours each semester, not including the summer semester, at an institution of vocational or higher education and achieves grades sufficient to re-enroll at such institution. A child who is employed at least fifteen hours per week during the semester may take as few as nine credit hours per semester.
At the beginning of each semester the child shall submit to each parent:
a transcript or similar official document provided by the school which includes the courses the child is enrolled in and has completed for each term,
the grades and credits received for each such course,
and an official document from the institution listing the courses the child is enrolled in for the upcoming term and the number of credits for each course.
Typically, a paying parent's obligation to pay child support terminates when the child:
Dies;
Marries;
Enters active duty in the military;
Becomes self-supporting, provided that the custodial parent has relinquished the child from parental control by express or implied consent;
Reaches age eighteen, unless the child is attending a secondary school at which time the support obligation will continue until the child graduates or reaches the age of 21 whichever first occurs, or
If the child is attending a post secondary educational institution, when the child eaches age twenty-two or graduates from a post-secondary educational program, whichever first occurs.
Many parents are under the impression that the amount of child support is a set thing. That isn't the case. A court has the ability to find that using the child support chart is inappropriate and enter an order for an amount of support that is best suited for the children given the parent's financial abilities and the children's needs.
IAAL
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