Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois

Re: Child support/college tuition

Unless a court order (or marital settlement agreement incorporated into a court order) requires your to pay child support past age eighteen, you are not obliged to do so. However, it is not as simple as that.

Illinois law (750 ILCS 5/513) provides in part: �Support for Non-minor Children and Educational Expenses. (a) The court may award sums of money out of the property and income of either or both parties . . . , as equity may require, for the support of the child or children of the parties who have attained majority in the following instances:

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"(2) The Court may also may make provision for the educational expenses of the child or children of the parties, whether of minor or majority age, and an application for educational expenses may be made before or after the child has attained majority, . . . . The authority under this Section to make provision for educational expenses extends not only to periods of college education or professional or other training after graduation from high school, but also to any period during which the child of the parties is still attending high school, even though he or she attained the age of 18. . . .�

Thus, if you stop paying support, your ex can file for continuing support under this section. With regard to college expenses, your divorce decree controls. However, you can seek modification of the terms of your decree upon a showing of substantial change in circumstances, but because you expressly agreed to pay a portion of college costs, this will be more difficult than it otherwise might have been. Once you have overcome the provisions of your agreement to pay, the court will consider the following in setting the amount you should pay; �all relevant factors that appear reasonable and necessary, including: (1) The financial resources of both parents. (2) The standard of living the child would have enjoyed had the marriage not been dissolved. (3) The financial resources of the child. (4) The child's academic performance.�

Knowing that you might have to pay something, one way or the other, should motivate you to settle this matter rather than come out fighting right away.