Child Support and College
By ladym33
@ladym33 (10979)
United States
September 8, 2012 2:35pm CST
If you are divorced and your child is in college and you can not afford to pay your portion of the tuition are you forced to do so or can you simply say I can not fford this anymore Johnny will have to go to a community college or or help pay for some of it himself or transfer to a cheaper college. Or are you forced to pay money you can not afford. To send a child to college. I know if my husband and I could not afford to send our kids to college we could just say we can't afford it and that would be that but what is the case when it comes to divorced couples and child support in regards to college? Surely people should not be forced to pay for their kids college when they can not afford it.
7 responses
@aryzairam (57)
• Philippines
9 Sep 12
I'm a college student. And some of my friends really can't afford our school's tuition fee especially next semester because there might be an increase. So we have this student assistance or loan and scholarships. Try to ask the school if they have that and I'm pretty sure every school has its way to help students. Then, apply for it. You might get a discount or your child's tuition may be free. :)
1 person likes this
@ladym33 (10979)
• United States
9 Sep 12
Thank you, this is not for me though. There is a family that is close to us that needs to borrow money from us because they are about to lose their home because they have 2 kids in college. The best option would be to make the kids pay for some of their own or or get a grant or something, but he claims his ex spouse will not allow him to stop paying what he is paying which is literally killing them financially.
@enjoythejourney (524)
• United States
9 Sep 12
In most cases in the US the child payment stops when the kid is 18. If the support paying parent chooses not to pay anymore after that it is legally ok. However, in some cases, parents will go back to the courts and let them decided. It will be up to courts to decided if the parent should or should not have to pay but these cases are usually the wealthier families and not the average family in the US.
The other parent may not like it but that it how the law is written.
@ladym33 (10979)
• United States
9 Sep 12
I wonder if he signed something saying that he would pay for it. He is in sales and made a lot more money a few years ago, and the wife was working as well, so back at that time they probably thought paying for college would not be a problem but now it is.
@cutepenguin (6431)
• Canada
9 Sep 12
I think it depends on what age the child support stops at. I don't think that parents whether they are divorced or not can be forced to pay for their kids' college, although their income does affect what grants a student can get.
@hmkoct5 (2065)
• United States
17 Sep 12
From what I understand, most people do not have it in their divorce decrees that they have to pay for college. If they do, then I would assume they are obligated by the legal document. Although, the child may not be able to go where they want to go, because if you can't afford it, you can't afford it. I think it is really up to whatever the divorce decree states. I do understand that many times the person paying child support could be forced to pay additional child support for college expenses, but that is decided by a judge.
@asliah (11137)
• Philippines
11 Nov 12
hi,
when i was studying at the year level of college i know my parent don't have that much of money so to help them i choose to study in a cheap university i mean in a public because they can't afford the higher tuition in some universities.in a divorce situation try to talk to your child if he /she like to study in a cheap or public university,then plan for the next if he/she answer it.
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
9 Sep 12
that is a very good question. I am in Canada so the rules are different. I think couples here would probably take the divorced spouse to court and the courts would decide if he or she could pay it or not.
