Legal Question in Family Law in Rhode Island

There is no absolute answer to your question as you have posed it.

Rhode Island General Laws 15-5-16.2 spells out child support obligations.

Specifically, 15-5-16.2 (b) provides as follows:

(b) The court may, if in its discretion it deems it necessary or advisable, order child support and education costs for children attending high school at the time of their eighteenth (18th) birthday and for ninety (90) days after graduation, but in no case beyond their nineteenth (19th) birthday.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the court, in its discretion, may order child support to continue, in the case of a child with a severe physical or mental impairment still living with or under the care of a parent, beyond the child's emancipation as defined above. The court shall consider the following factors when making its determination: (1) the nature and extent of the disability; (2) the cost of the extraordinary medical expenses; (3) the ability of the child to earn income; (4) the financial resources of the child; (5) the financial resources of the parents; (6) the inability of the primary caregiver of the child to sustain gainful employment on a full-time basis due to the care necessitated by the child. The onset of the disability must have occurred prior to the emancipation event. The court may periodically review the case to determine if circumstances warrant the continuation of child support.

- End of Select Statutory Citation -

Simply being bipolar may or may not be sufficient to extend child support beyond the age of nineteen (19). Bipolar illness is a mental illness. However, it is a treatable mental illness with medication. Bipolar illness can be debilitating if left untreated. However, bipolarism is believed to be caused by a chemical imbalance in various hormones secreted by the human brain based upon unknown factors, but the condition is thought to be passed on genetically and not caused by any particular onset in a person's life of any circumstances they can control.

The degree of bipolar illness, the methods of treatment undertaken, the manner and severity in which the bipolar illness manifests itself, the extent to which treating physicians believe the illness will adversely affect the child such that the child needs to remain with the placement parent and is in need of extended assistance and financial support are most likely the predominant factors the court would consider in determining whether child support should be extended beyond the age of nineteen(19) and whether the child could otherwise be self supporting and self sustaining with or without the treatment of the condition.

In other words, the mere existence of a bipolar condition does not automatically create an extended child support obligation for a divorced father, absent a request by the mother of the child for extended child support for the child supported by appropriate information for the court to reasonably determine if a continued child support order is warranted.

Make sure you remember that regardless of the circumstances, a child support order in Rhode Island does not terminate automatically. You must file a Motion to Terminate Child Support which must be served upon the mother of the child along with other documents and go before the court with the request that your child support be terminated.

I hope you found this answer informative and helpful.

If you need the professional assistance of an Experienced and Affordable Divorce and Family Law* Attorney and Coach, please contact me at (401) 632-6976.

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