Back To School! Who Pays for School Supplies, Clothes and Fees? Indiana Child Support Guidelines

It’s time to go back to school and a survey found that the average amount spent on back-to-school supplies and clothes is approximately $600.00 per child.  In terms of consumer spending, back-to-school shopping is only eclipsed by holiday shopping.

When parents are divorced, or were never married and live separately, who pays for the school supplies and clothes?

Some court/support orders set out who pays for what specifically in the order, but most do not.  For those that do not, the default is that the primary custodial parent pays for these items. Why? Because that parent generally is the parent who receives support (for an exception read this ) the child support guidelines assume that the custodial parent bears these costs. In fact, the purchase of these items is one of the reasons the primary custodial parent receives child support.

However, if the parents share physical custody and there is not a primary custodian, then they must decide who is going to be responsible for the "controlled expenses". The guidelines define controlled expenses as follows:

Controlled Expenses. This type of expense for children is typically paid by the custodial parent and is not transferred or duplicated. Controlled expenses are items like clothing, education, school books and supplies, ordinary uninsured health care and personal care. For example, the custodial parent buys a winter coat for the child. The noncustodial parent will not buy another one. The custodial parent controls this type of expense. The controlled expenses account for 15% of the cost of raising the child. The parenting time credit is based on the more time the parents share, the more expenses are duplicated and transferred. The controlled expenses are not shared and remain with the parent that does not get the parenting time credit. Controlled expenses are generally not a consideration unless there is equal parenting time.

If you have a child in private school or some other type of special school these costs are considered separately.   The guidelines call these "extraordinary educational expenses" and provide as follows: 

Extraordinary educational expenses may be for elementary, secondary or post secondary education, and should be limited to reasonable and necessary expenses for attending private or special schools, institutions of higher learning, and trade, business or technical schools to meet the particular educational needs of the child. 

Elementary and Secondary Education.  If the expenses are related to elementary or secondary education, the court may want to consider whether the expense is the result of a personal preference of one parent or whether both parents concur; if the parties would have incurred the expense while the family was intact; and whether or not education of the same or higher quality is available at less cost.

In any case, the best practice as to school costs is to have the payment of these costs detailed in the support order.  Otherwise, if the costs are to be shared, make sure the costs are discussed prior to  being incurred so that each parent knows their responsibility. If an impasse occurs, mediation is a great way to resolve the dispute. 

If you would like to discuss this matter further, please contact me at rcassman@chwlaw.com.

Emancipation and College Expenses - Littke vs. Littke - Indiana Child Support Law 2013

Indiana law regarding emancipation and college expenses (also called post-secondary expenses) has changed dramatically in the last couple years.  The recent case of Littke v. Littke, summarizes and reviews this law and how it applies.  

Littke involves the situation where a divorced couple with children’s divorce decree did not contain a provision regarding post-secondary educational expenses.  When the parties’ daughter turned nineteen, in 2012, mother “filed a motion to emancipate and terminate child support.”  While acknowledging that there was “no existing order for postsecondary educational expenses,” Father nevertheless requested the trial court order mother to contribute to their child’s post-secondary education expenses.  

After the parents agreed that the child was emancipated, and that Mother did not have to pay further child support, Mother filed a motion to dismiss the father’s petition for postsecondary education expenses, arguing that “[a] parent may assert emancipation of a child as a defense to a petition seeking an order for educational needs where no order providing for educational needs was entered prior to emancipation.” Mother also contended that Father’s petition was “untimely” because Father filed the petition after the child was emancipated.  The trial court granted the Mother’s motion to dismiss, and the Father subsequently appealed.

In discussing the issue, the Court of Appeals examined Ind. Code § 31-16-6-6. First, the court noted that the Indiana Legislature amended the statute in 2012 , “chang[ing] the presumptive age for termination of child support from twenty-one to nineteen[.]” The court also observed that the Indiana Legislature again modified the statute in 2013, “with an emergency retroactive effective date of July 1, 2012[,] and added subjections (c) through (e) that address a parent's or child's ability and the timing to file a petition for educational needs following the 2012 Amendment.”  Specifically, the court acknowledged that Ind. Code § 31-16-6-6(a)(1) stated,

(a) The duty to support a child under this chapter, which does not include support for educational needs, ceases when the child becomes nineteen (19) years of age unless any of the following conditions occurs:

(1) The child is emancipated before becoming nineteen (19) years of age. In this case the child support, except for the educational needs outlined in section 2(a)(1) of this chapter, terminates at the time of emancipation, although an order for educational needs may continue in effect until further order of the court.

 (Emphasis added by court). The court further noted that Ind. Code § 31-16-6-6(c), which was added by the 2013 amendment, provides that “[i]f a court has established a duty to support a child in a court order issued before July 1, 2012, the: (1) parent or guardian of the child; or (2) child; may file a petition for educational needs until the child becomes twenty-one (21) years of age.”

Applying these statutory changes to the issue at hand, the court observed that the trial court had entered its judgment granting the Mother’s motion to dismiss in 2012, before the Indiana Legislature amended Ind. Code § 31-16-6-6 to add subsection (c). Importantly, the court observed that, “subsection (c) of that statute clearly allows a parent, who had a child support order issued before July 1, 2012, to file a petition for educational needs until the child becomes twenty-one years old,” and because the statute has a retroactive effective date of July 2012, subsection (c) was applicable to this case.  Indeed, the record “reaveal[ed] that there was a child support order issued before July 1, 2012 and that [the child] was less than twenty-one years old at the time Father filed the petition for postsecondary educational expenses.”  Therefore, under Ind. Code § 31-16-6-6, the Father’s postsecondary petition was not untimely. 

 If you would like to discuss this topic further, please contact me. 

Summer Camp & Extraordinary Expenses - Indiana Child Support Law

This post discusses how the  Indiana Child Support Guidelines  suggest summer camps and summer activities should be shared by the parents, as well as other practical considerations related to summer expenses.  

First, it is important to note that the basic child support payment does not include costs associated with summer camps and the like.  Consider the language of  the Guidelines:

Other Extraordinary Expenses

The economic data used in developing the Child Support Guideline Schedules do not include components related to those expenses of an ”optional” nature such as costs related to summer camp, soccer leagues, scouting and the like.  When both parents agree that the child(ren) may participate in optional activities, the parents should pay their pro rata share of these expenses.  

So, when parents agree the costs are generally split pro rata (per the respective income percentages set forth on the child support worksheet or in the support order).  However, where parents do not agree the judge, and, therefore the attorneys, will analyze the necessity of the expenses and the reasonableness of the expenses. 

Believe it or not, I’ve seen one parent simply not agree to any camps, activities, or extraordinary expenses, because they believe that by not agreeing they can save themselves from having to pay anything towards these expenses.  This is not a reasonable position, and it is important to note that the Guidelines do not support this position; rather, they provide that the court can assign the responsibility to pay for these expenses considering:

·        Each parent’s ability to pay;

·        Which parent is encouraging the activity;

·        Whether the child(ren) has/have historically participated in the activity; and,

·        The reasons a parent encourages or opposes participation in the activity. 

If you are in a dispute involving the responsibility to pay extraordinary expenses please review the Guidelines and the appropriate support order. If these disputes continually occur consider modifying the support order at issue and adding specific provisions to address how decisions regarding extraordinary expenses should be reached and how they will be paid.  Sometimes it is helpful to state how long one parent has to reimburse the other parent.  Also, mediation, a collaborative law meeting  and/or a parenting coordinator are good alternatives to litigation to help resolve these disputes.  

To discuss this further please contact me.