One of the most turbulent aspects of a divorce can be reaching an agreement as to how the children should be cared for. Most of the time, both sides are going to feel very strongly that they should be the one to take care of the children. These feelings can lead to great amounts of stress for everyone involved. Without action, the stress can slow down the court’s ability to quickly reach an appropriate decision. To minimize the stress and difficulty that slows negotiations to a snail’s pace, Arizona courts have created rules governing how children are to be cared for after a divorce. These are called the Arizona Child Support Guidelines.
Under the Arizona Revised Statutes, child support can be awarded at divorce, legal separation, or for child maintenance. The court can order either or even both parties to pay. For child support, there is an expected termination date of the last day of the month the youngest child turns 18. But, just because there is an expected termination date doesn’t mean that the child support payments will end on that date. The parties may elect to continue the payments for a longer duration or the court may deem continued payments to be necessary due to the circumstances surrounding the child’s upbringing.
Before freaking out that child support may never end, let me give you some more info.
What Do Courts Consider?
The court considers many things when dealing with child support. These factors include; financial resources/needs of the child, the resources/needs of the parent, standard of living of the child, physical and emotional condition of the child, medical support plan for the child, duration of parenting time and the related expenses. With so many things to consider there should always be something each party in the dispute. It’s not as easy as saying who makes the most money or least money. The court must weigh the factors and decide which ones to give the most attention. The trick is finding where to place the right balance.
Courts are able to order continued child support in certain situations under A.R.S. § 25-320. These continued orders tend to happen in two main scenarios; child disability or education. Though limited in application, if the court decides it needs to impose them it can extend child support for quite some time.
Disability
In instances where the child receiving support is in some way disabled, the court will take that into account with the initial ruling regarding the length and amount of child support. Many times children with special needs will require care even after they turn 18. In these cases, courts can order child support to continue even after a child reaches 18 if they find the disability is severe and if the child’s disability began before the child reached 18. If the disability began after 18, the chance of securing any type of child support reduces dramatically. Courts tend to be very cautious when dealing with children with disabilities because many expenses might be difficult to expect.
Education
Another exception arises if the child is still in high school when they reach 18. Courts will often require support to continue until the child finishes high school. So for those of you type-A personalities, plan accordingly. However, if the child chooses to attend college, child support won’t be required to cover the costs. Yet, if the parents choose to set aside money for the child’s college education during the divorce, they must do so carefully as the court won’t be able to modify the agreement after the child reaches 18.
Above all, when faced with child support, it’s important to take a truthful and realistic look at your finances to understand the impact it might have. If at any time it gets to be too much of a burden, courts are willing to assist in modifying the requirements. It’s never a good idea to let your child support payments to lag behind or end. Not only does it hurt you, but it can hurt the children even more.