questions & answers

Question: My ex-wife and i have been divorced since 2010 and I was ordered to pay child support for our 3 children and there has been no modifications since our divorce. Two of our children are now over 18 and the youngest is 14. He will come to live with me this month and go to school in Oklahoma. How do I get child support to stop while he is living with me and attending school?

Answer: This is an Arizona website, so I am assuming the child support order was issued by the Arizona courts.  Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 25-501 sets out a parent's duties of support.  The law says you are obligated to support your children until the age of 18, unless the child is still in high school when he or she reaches 18.  If the child is still in high school at 18, support will continue so long as the child remains in school but not past 19.  The court can order support past majority if the child has a major disability (A.R.S. section 25-320).  Your son coming to live with you in Oklahoma constitutes a significant change of circumstances.  You need to file a petition in the Arizona family court to modify child support and to terminate support for healthy children who are over 18 and high school graduates.  Go to the website for the Arizona Superior Court in the county where the child support order was issued, find the self-service section.  In some counties, they use EZ court forms.  Go to http://www.azcourts.gov. When you get into the forms section, look under family law.