Legal Question in Family Law in Indiana

Re: college bound

If your dissolution or custody decree does not specifically provide for the payment of college expenses between the parents, one of you needs to get a petition on file prior to the payment of costs of the education so that the same will be proportioned between you. Unfortunately, if the child leaves home and resides on campus, the amount of support the non-custodial parent pays will decrease corresponding with the amount of time the child will be spending back at home (the holiday and vacation times) amortized over the entire year. One of the reasons for going back to court at this time is so that you can discuss who will be giving the child an allowance or weekly spending money, how much it should be and out of whose pocket it should come. Because the custodial parent's support will be lowered, the non-custodial parent will be increasing the amount of money spent on the child directly by such an allowance or the payment of a clothing allowance or even part of the transportation costs of getting the child back and forth to school (many will want to come home frequently while others will be happy not coming home). However, since support is allocated to helping the custodial parent maintain a place for the child to live, once college becomes a reality, the custodial parent no longer needs to maintain such a "lavish" living arrangement, as the child will not be there much or much longer. Hence the support goes down.