Child Support Termination

I’ve been paying child support to my ex-wife for the past 15 years. I’ve always paid on time and I’ve never had any complaints from her. My oldest son just turned 19 and he’ll be starting his sophomore year in college in the fall. I don’t see anything in my divorce decree that says when I can stop paying support for him. Since I’ve still got two more kids to put through college I’m hoping I can reduce my bill to my ex- so that I have a little bit more money to pay those ever-increasing tuition bills. My ex- says that when we went through the divorce, her lawyer told her that I had to keep paying for each kid until he turned 22. My friend said I could stop at 18. What’s the right answer?

Every state has different rules about how long parents can be obligated to make support payments for their children. Many end support at age 18; others allow support to continue as the children attend college.

Your former wife probably was told that support continued until age 22, because that was the law in Missouri until two years ago. Now the outer limit is 21. But that’s not the whole story.

All children are entitled to support until at least age 18, unless they get married or join the armed forces first. If a child continues to pursue a high school diploma, that support will continue until the child receives that diploma or turns 21.

If the child goes on to college immediately after high school, however, the support obligation continues as long as the child follows a few simple rules: the child must enroll for at least 12 hours of credit each semester and must attain passing grades in at least six hours of course work. The child must also provide copies of enrollment information prior to each term and grades at the end of each term to the parent making the support payments. (The parents can’t get this information on their own because children who are at least 18 years of age are considered adults and the schools are therefore not permitted to release their information to anyone without the child’s consent.) If the child is employed for at least 15 hours per week then the he or she need only take nine hours of classes each semester.

Once the child reaches age 21, however, the support ends. The support will end sooner if the child gets married or doesn’t follow the rules we just discussed.

Of course there is nothing stopping you from continuing to support your children, either directly or through your ex-wife, for as long as you want. It’s just that a court can’t make you send that support check once your child turns 21.