questions & answers

Question: I have children who have been in private school for the last 7 years. Their father and I are getting divorced. Is he obligated to continue paying for private school expenses? The children have never attended public schools and now their dad is saying that he should not have to pay for the schooling and they should be withdrawn from the private schools. The age range is from 8-12 years old. With thanks.

Answer: The family law judge will often weigh all of the available factors (e.g. respective parental incomes, length of past enrollment in private school, age of the children, etc.) before making that decision. The child support guidelines *do* include private school tuition as a factor, so if the court ordered him to pay for that schooling, the resulting amount probably would be credited in his favor when the court decides on the final child support figure. If you are interested in running some test calculations, you can go to the Supreme Court's website and experiment with different figures to see what the outcomes would be.