Legal Question in Family Law in Oregon
Child Attending School Law
Our daughter is 19. She is living on her own and working full time. She is going to school part time in order to continue receiving her ''child support''. However, she has not been in compliance with providing required forms and other requirements as she has dropped classes without our knowledge, etc. The school advised us that the only way to obtain all the info we are entitled to (academic progress, enrollment status, class withdrawal, etc...)is to have our daughter give us access to her PCC website. She refuses to do so. Since we cannot obtain the info to ensure her adherence to the law are we within our rights to suspend the support until she provides us with this info. She is very dishonest and is trying to do the minimum to receive the $536 per month. We want to help her but not if she is being irresponsible and trying to work the system.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Child Attending School Law
Child support goes to the parent who is the primary residential parent for that child, not directly to the child.
Post secondary goes directly to the school, not to the child.
So why anybody is paying a nineteen year old is beyond me. She's not entitled to any money from either parent.
I can't tell what sort of order you are following when you pay her support.
But based on what you said here, your remedy is to make sure you know exactly what order you are following. If there is no order, then stop paying her. If there is an order, be sure you know what it requires, because there is no way support should be going to her directly, and this is why.
But you are not, under the terms you are telling me, entitled to information from her school, because she's a grown woman.
On the other hand, because she's a grown woman, I don't see where you are obligated to pay her anything.
Hope this helps. Elizabeth Powell
Re: Child Attending School Law
"Our" daughter...?? Sounds like the two of you are a married couple under a court order to pay child support. Just HOW did THAT happen? Or is ONE of you a divorced but now remarried parent (with Spouse # 2) who is obligated to child support pursuant to a divorce judgment from Spouse # 1? (And if that's the case, it is not "our" daughter; rather, it is "my current spouse's daughter from a prior marriage." It would be a lot easier to understand the situation.
I am assuming that the support order about which you are concerned is an OREGON child support order and not one from Washington state. (Washington lawyer's posted reply to your question may not have understood this critical fact.)
Under Oregon's unique, strange, unfair, one-of-a-kind post-18 child support law, ORS 107.108, support money is distributed directly to an otherwise qualifying 18-21 y/o son or daughter who is "attending school" providing the adult student satisfies certain procedural requirements. One such requirement is that the "child" attending school provide to the parent obligated to pay support a WRITTEN CONSENT FORM that is directed to the child�s school and that gives the school authority to disclose to the parent ordered to pay support (1) the child�s enrollment status, (2) whether the child is maintaining satisfactory academic progress, (3) a list of courses in which the child is enrolled and (4) the child�s grades.
The student must provide this written consent form to the parent at the beginning of each academic year after the child attains age 18. Oregon law says that a parent�s obligation to pay support to a child attending school is SUSPENDED when the parent ordered to pay support submits to the Division of Child Support a written notice that the child has not provided to the parent the required written consent from earlier mentioned, coupled with a request that the support obligation be suspended. This will cause DCS to then look into the matter further and determine whether to suspend or not.
The form YOU need to submit to DCS is Form # 349 ("REQUEST FOR SUSPENSION OF SUPPORT FOR CHILD ATTENDING SCHOOL").
Download it from www.dcs.state.or.us/forms/default.htm
Call me and we can schedule a conference to provide you with further legal help.
LAWRENCE D. GORIN
Law Offices of L.D. Gorin
521 S.W. Clay St., Suite 205
Portland, Oregon 97201
Telephone: 503.224.8884
Fax: 503.226.1321
Email: [email protected]
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