High-asset and high-income couples preparing for divorce often worry about financial consequences associated with separating. Property division and financial support orders may dominate negotiations or litigation proceedings.
Successful parents often want their children to achieve a similar level of success or to surpass their parents in the future. A college education is often a key component of a young adult’s future success. Can parents preparing for a high-asset divorce request that the courts integrate college expenses into a child support order?
Child support ends before college
Some states have adopted child support rules that allow for continued support through the college years. Florida is not one of those states. Child support often ends when a child turns 18 or when they graduate high school. Regardless of a child’s academic struggles or ambitions, child support generally does not persist past a young adult’s 19th birthday.
The courts do not extend child support into the college years. Instead, parents may need to reach an agreement with one another for covering college expenses. They can negotiate an arrangement where they each absorb a certain percentage of overall college costs.
One parent might also agree to pay a specific amount annually for as long as a college-bound teenager remains enrolled full-time and meets certain academic standards. Even when conflict levels are high in a divorce, parents actually still want what is best for their children, which may require planning to pay for college.
Working out an arrangement to better ensure that a divorce does not prevent a young adult from going to college can help parents limit the negative impact of a divorce. Those who understand child support rules can approach the matter of funding their children’s college education more effectively.
