Florida Family Lawyer Blog

In these uncertain financial times, the specific terms of a child support agreement within a divorce settlement has become even more important than before. One important factor that parties to a divorce may forget, or may not even think to mention, is payment of their child’s college education. In today’s society, undoubtedly driven by education, a college degree has become the pinnacle of entering Florida’s workforce. Recognizing this, many Floridians decide to help pay for their child’s college education upon graduation from high school. However, when a child’s parents are going through a divorce, and child support obligations are being mentioned by both parties, the question of who must pay for a child’s college education is a matter that should be discussed.

Florida statute mandates that a parent is not legally obligated to support his or her child beyond the age of 18, the age of majority, unless the parent agrees to get around this by signing a binding contract or unless some type of statutory exception applies pertaining to a child’s disability or dependency. With the statutory exceptions, a parent may be required to support a dependent child where: (1) dependency is caused by mental or physical incapacity which occurred before the child reached 18; or (2) the child is “dependent in fact,” meaning that he or she is between the ages of 18 and 19, is currently enrolled in high school, and has a reasonable expectation of graduating before 19. Absent a court order, binding contract, or these two statutory exceptions, the obligation to pay the current child support for a child, including payment for secondary education upon completion of high school, is terminated when the child reaches the age of 18.

Where exactly does that leave a child of parents going through a divorce that just graduated high school, is 18 years of age, and needs financial support from his parents to attend college in his hometown of Fort Lauderdale, Florida? As stated previously, if a child is no longer “dependent” upon his or her parents, either through age or disability, a parent simply has no absolute duty to provide a child financial support, which unfortunately includes paying or helping to pay for an adult child’s college education. If you are a parent going through a divorce, and are worried about paying for your child’s college education, the best thing to do is to bring up the topic in preliminary discussions between the parties. Although a parent is under no legal obligation to provide support a child over the age of 18, the age of most college students, it is important to note that the support agreement may require a parent to pay support beyond the age of 18. Through contract, one parent may require the other parent to pay and be solely responsible for a child’s college education, thereby obligating that parent to pay reasonable costs associated with it. The exact terms should be stipulated in the contract. If the support contract fails to address this matter explicitly, the court is unlikely to honor the request. Getting around this failure would require one parent to make a motion to the court requesting a change to the terms of the support obligations within the divorce settlement agreement to include a provision for college education support. However, the decision to grant this motion is within the court’s discretion. The wiser route would be to include such a provision within the original divorce settlement agreement binding both parties to its contractual terms.

If you are going through a divorce and are concerned about your child’s financial support for his or her college education, please consult an attorney for more information.