Education Costs and Other Issues in a Texas Divorce

 Posted on May 17, 2022 in Divorce

Each state, including Texas, sets its own child support guidelines that the family courts use to determine how much one parent should pay the other parent for child support. Child support is supposed to cover all the basic needs of the child – including shelter, food, and clothing. There are certain expenses for children, however, that are not automatically included in a standard child support order. One of these expenses is for education.

Education Costs

Most parents can attest to how expensive education costs have become. It is not only tuition payments, if the child attends private school or daycare programs, but even the costs for children who attend public schools can be hefty. School expenses for children can include:

• School clothes

• School supplies

• Backpacks

• After school activities

• Field trips

If a child is struggling with certain subjects, they may need a tutor to help them. Children who have severe physical or mental disabilities may need to attend specialized schools.

Although child support can be used to cover these education expenses, your attorney may recommend that these extra costs be incorporated in a parenting plan in order to ensure that both parents are paying their fair share.

Other Education Issues

In addition to the education costs that need to be addressed when drafting your parenting plan, some of the other education issues that should be considered are:

• If the child is old enough to have a say, what is their preference?

• If the parents live in different school districts, is there one district over the other which will provide the child with a better education and is the parent the child should live with?

• Would the benefit of changing schools outweigh the potential negative impact of changing schools for the child?

• What will each parent’s role be regarding the day-to-day involvement with the child’s educational needs, including helping with homework, parent/teacher meetings, etc.?

• How will the proposed parenting time schedule affect the child’s school schedule?

College Education Expenses

If your children are young, you may not even be thinking of future college expenses right now, but your divorce attorney should be. These are expenses that will someday in the not-so-distant future need to be addressed and it is better to address them during your divorce rather than years later when your child is graduating high school.

If you are already divorced and this issue was never included in your final decree, you can petition the court to modify your current child support order to determine what your ex-spouse’s financial responsibility for your child’s college expenses will be.

Call a Texas High Net Worth Divorce Lawyer

If you are going through a high asset divorce, it is critical to have a skilled Austin, TX complex divorce attorney advocating for you and ensuring you and your children are protected. Contact Powers and Kerr, PLLC at 512-610-6199 to schedule a free consultation and find out what legal options you may have.

Source:

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.154.htm