Q: If I am reading this right, when I child turns 18 support will stop until they go to college?
They have to provide proof of going to college to continue support? Only if back support is caught up will it stop when they reach 18, correct?
A:
If I understand, you are trying to determine when child support stops if your child continues on to college. The timing of events is really crucial to give an accurate answer, but if the scenario is that your child graduates high school or completes a GED program, turns 18 but will be going on to college, then your child has until October 1st following graduation to enroll in at least 12 hours of credit for each college semester. Turning 18 won't by itself terminate child support in that situation as the law gives them a little time to enroll in college. And then there are all kinds of things that must happen in order for support to continue. The variations of that are really too much to contemplate without more facts, but a family law attorney in your area would be able to help you figure this out.
Also, terminating a current order is not dependent on whether or not arrears are owed. In fact, one of the most critical mistakes that I see happen is that parents that pay child support fail to rightfully terminate an order and the court cannot retroactively terminate the order, so current support continues to accrue.
If you believe that a child support order should be terminated, you should seek legal advice quickly.
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