Twenty-one is the simple answer.
Of course, this being the law, there is more to the answer. Support can end before age 21 if the child is emancipated. Children are automatically emancipated when they are married or join the military. Just file a notice with the court unless there are children younger than the one being emancipated. More about that below.
Two scenarios exist where the child might be emancipated but not automatically. In one such scenario, the child is out of high school, not attending a post-secondary school and capable of supporting themselves. The second scenario requires the child to have removed himself/herself from the control and custody of either parent. Both scenarios require the non-custodial parent to file a petition with the court and prove that child should be emancipated.
What if there are younger children than one who should be emancipated?
The non-custodial parent must a petition to modify support for the remaining children. Here is another example of self-help being no help. One case where a father had three children and as each left home he modified his support by one-third without filing anything with the court. In the end, the court found the man in contempt and owing child support. Why? Because Indiana's child support guidelines do not operate on a simple mathematical basis but a more complicated algorithm. The Child Support Guidelines are here. I suspect he thought it was a brilliant idea to save legal fees.
If you need to check any possible changes in your child support, this is the online child support calculator from the Indiana Judicial Center.
One more thing: emancipation ends the obligation to pay current support but not any money owed for unpaid support. Here is the statute of limitations for enforcing child support obligations:
IC34-11-2-10I guess I get very surprised with this one. When my divorces are over, I try to make sure my clients know what rights and responsibilities they will have afterwards. I do not know why more attorneys do not do this. From conversations I have with clients wanting to enforce or modify their support, custody or visitation orders, I find no one tells them very much.
An action to enforce a child support obligation must be commenced not later than ten (10) years after:
(1) the eighteenth birthday of the child; or
(2) the emancipation of the child;
whichever occurs first.
As added by P.L.1-1998, SEC.6.
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16 comments:
I have a son that turned twenty one this past May. This is his last year in college which has already been paid for by his mother and I. I wish to have him emancipated based on the fact that this will be his second year of not living with his mother. The first year he moved to Hawaii for the summer to work. This summer is chose to get his own apartment and live on campus while working. When speaking to Indiana attorneys, I get two different views. Can you shed any light on this matter?
Shed light on why there were two different views? Since there was no explanation of what were the two different views, no I cannot shed any light here except to suppose that since the child has not graduated from college the writer missed the point about Indiana law on emancipation.
I have a son who is flunking out of school and is going to quit in November when he turns 18. He has a part time job, and is still going to live with his mother. If he quits and has a job, why should I have to keep supporting him. If his mother wants to support him while he does nothing, that should be on her. Am I still obligated? If so, until what age? It does not indicate at what age support ends in my divorce decree.
Which is exactly why we have a process called emancipation. I have several posts on the subject. Put the word emancipation into the search box at the op of the page and you will see all the posts that deal with emancipation.
Just a reminder - with this kind of case you will need to go back to court.
My 18 yr old son has autism, bipolar disorder, ADHD and type 1 diabetes (dependent on insulin). I could not get my attorney to pay attention to the fact that my son is disabled and needs LOTS of help. I'm not sure he will ever be able to live on his own. So, I never got any special consideration for child support -- and in fact I have to provide health insurance for both my kids. Child support will end at 21 -- or if my ex (who is a psychiatrist) can convince someone to let him quit before then because my son might not be able to attend college. My son need assisted living situation and he's been turned down twice now for SSI, so how can I afford to help him in the future? How can I not go into bankruptcy trying to care for OUR child?
My husbands daughter (19) has moved out of her mothers home. She is supporting herself and living with friends. She does pay rent. Can she emancipate herself? She is not in school and dropped out of college part way through both of the last two semesters. My husband does still pay child support to the mother. Daughter has been out of the house for approx. 2 months. Does she need a attorney to do this or can she file papers with the court on her own? Average cost of attorney to file emancipation?
Thank you for your help.
Does anyone read the Proverbial Legal Disclaimer on the right hand side of the blog? I cannot answer specific legal questions on this blog.
Meanwhile, I suggest reading the articles on emancipation that I have on here.
I apologize for your inconvenience. I was just looking for someone to point us in the appropriate direction.
And I did. But rules are rules.
What if the mother (CP) encourages the child to not move out of her home at the age of 19 so she can continue to collect the child support as she chooses not to work?
Is the NCP still on the hook for the legal longevity of the child support statute being the age of 21?
If you are paying child support until the age of 21, can you continue to claim said child on taxes until the age of 21 as well.
Just to interject- I think 21 is a little extreme to continue to be legally required to support a child who chooses not to attend college. :(
Anonymous, I am going to suggest that you go back and read again when the child can be emancipated. It is not if they are not in college but if they are capable of supporting themselves that makes the difference.
I think the policy is pretty obvious when you lock into the capacity of supporting themselves. You (and the other readers to this post) should go on to read the articles on here about child support. There is a link to them at the end of the comments next to the word "Label". This will lead you to more specific articles.
About the taxes, if the child is not emancipated then all the parts of the court order regarding child support remain in place. That is the flip side of child support remaining in effect till 21.
I have a hard time imagining a child who does not go to college or to work. I suspect the General Assembly had the same problem. To change the law, you need to get the General Assembly to write one.
Sam,
Thank You so much for your response. I would very much like to challenge the Indiana Law, for nothing more than the obvious ambiguity of its basic interpretation. In theory, what is stopping a Custodial Parent from enrolling a child-and I use that term loosely once they have graduated high school-in college courses with the main objective of creating a means of being legally accomodated with support. What, if any check and balance system is currently in place to periodically check on continued college participation? This just seems as an accessible avenue for revenue for attorneys as the Non-Custodial Parent would have to pay through the nose to "try" and make the custodial parent comply with proper and honest reporting of status of the "over 18" child. If looking at the lesser of two evils, it seems as the law has been structured for the NCP to just concede with paying until the person is 21 so they don't have to continue the fight in the courtroom.
Obviously, my venting is drawn from personal experience. Being a victim of Parental Alienation Syndrome, my ex expends A LOT of energy to ensure I know NOTHING that occurs in my son's life. I can't imagine this magically changing once he graduates from high school in 3 years...the cross I must bear...
Again, Thank You so much for taking the time to share your professional mind and speaking "law" in laymans terms.
My daughter has been in a court appointed children's home for the past year and a half. I had just gotten custody of her from her mother a few months before she got in trouble. She is getting out in October and I just recieved papers asking me to sign custody back to her mother and for child support. My daughter will be 19 in January. She has been in school because it is madated by the state that she goes while in their care. When she gets out she has no plans but to get a G.E.D. Her mother says she will force her to go to some kind of school right away. I guess for the child support to be owed. Can I stall signing the papers to see what she is going to do before I commit. I know there is a four month wait after she is out of school before the child support would stop, so if I sign and she goes only one day I would owe for the next 4 months.
The last anonymous comment missed my disclaimers that I cannot offer legal advice on a specific case. Which also applies to the Anonymous of August 19.
Anonymous needs to contact a lawyer for the answer to his question.
However, he does raise a point about the child going back to school just enough to avoid the 4 month rule. This is a tricky point and one I had to deal with years and years ago.
The statute says quite plainly f months out of high school. No reported case dealt with this issue. I think a strict reading requires that it be a four month wait.
Which leaves room for some game playing. If someone wants to be bold, the way to end the game playing seems to me to file a petition to modify custody.
Modify custody?!? At the age of 19?!?...give me a break.
Indiana law is seriously in need of revision. Who in their right mind makes someone pay for a 21 year old adult?
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