Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Re: Paying College Tuition after a divorce

Sounds like sloppy drafting of the decree. The best suggestion I can give you is based on what a court would be able to order if it had gone to trial. Based on the court's discretion in determining whether and for how long to award postsecondary educational support the factors that it would consider include but are not limited to the following: age of the child; the child's needs; the expectations of the parties for their children when the parents were together; the child's prospects, desires, aptitudes, abilities or disabilities; the nature of the postsecondary education sought; and the parents' level of education, standard of living, current and future resources, the amount and type of support that the child would have been afforded if the parents had stayed together. The child must enroll in an accredited academic or vocational school and actively pursue a course of study that matches the child's vocational goals, and the child must be in good academic standing. The postsecondary educational support will not go beyond the child's twenty-third birthday except for exceptional circumstances, such as mental, physical, or emotional disabilities.

Re: Paying College Tuition after a divorce

You could ask the court to clarify its ruling - not to add additional responsibility onto either party, but merely to more fully spell out each parent's responsibilities.

Post secondary support in WA is generally limited to academic charges and fees (books, maybe room and board) at the UW, for undergraduate work, divided by three.

Each parent picks up a third, and the child pays a third.

If your decree was that badly drafted and you cannot reach resolution through alternative dispute resolution, you might consider asking the trial court to clarify just what the heck it was ordering.

Hope this helps. Elizabeth Powell