Father needs out

[sschnurr]

Indiana - I have a daughter that is 21 and a son that is 20. They are both in school at this time. My daughter will completed at the end of this year and my son was susposed to complete in May. He flunked two classes and so I am not sure when he will graduate. When can I stop paying child support? My daughter will be 22 in June and my son will be 21 in December. My X wife works for a bunch of lawyers and threatened me last year I told her that I wanted to give my 21 year old the money directly as she lives on campus.

[cbg]

When does the custody agreement say you stop paying child support?

We are in a different state but my husband's agreement required him to pay until his younger child turned 21.

[moburkes]

This is what I could find, but your court orders are what you need to follow:

Emancipation: Support Orders for Two or More Children. Support orders for two or more children, under the Guidelines, are stated as an in gross or total amount rather than on a per child basis. The total obligation will not decrease when the oldest child reaches twenty‑one (21) years of age, or upon the occurrence of some other series of events that gives rise to emancipation, absent judicial modification of the order. Conversely, the law recognizes that where an order is framed in terms of an amount per child, an abatement of respective shares will occur upon each child's emancipation.


The concept of a pro‑rata delineation of support is generally inconsistent with the economic policy underlying the Guidelines (See "Economic Data Used in Developing Guidelines" in "Commentary" to Support Guideline 1). That policy recognizes that the amount of support required for two children is 1.5 times that required to support one child. The multiplication factor decreases as the number of children increases. If support were reduced by one half when the first of two children was emancipated, the remaining amount of support would be significantly below the Guideline amount for one child at the same parental income levels.



Support orders may, however, be framed to allow for automatic abatement of support upon the emancipation of the first child if that emancipation is by reaching age twenty‑one (21) or by virtue of some other significant event that will not be disputed between the parties.


EXAMPLE: Assume a combined weekly adjusted income of $1,000.00 provided solely by the noncustodial parent, and an order for support of three children. No other factors being considered, a support order would provide for payment of $285 per week for three children; $228 weekly upon the oldest child reaching age twenty‑one (21) years of age; and $152 per week after the second oldest child reaches twenty‑one (21), to and until the youngest child's twenty‑first birthday, unless otherwise modified by the court.



It is recommended that such a delineation should be an exception and not the rule. It is incumbent upon counsel who represent parents in dissolutions to attempt to familiarize them with the need to judicially amend the order of support when children are emancipated and to discuss with the parties what constitutes emancipation.