Does Private Tuition Qualify for Credit of Child Support in Florida?
- Child support in Florida begins with a basic support amount. The court calculates this by first adding together both parents' incomes. If you and your child's other parent collectively earn $4,500 per month, the court believes that $916 of that should go toward the care of your child. If you earn $2,500 of the $4,500, and if your child's other parent earns $2,000 of the total, then you are responsible for 55 percent of your child's financial needs and her other parent is responsible for 45 percent. Your child support amount would be $504 a month, or 55 percent of $916. The Florida child support guidelines then calculate in extra necessary costs, such as medical expenses and child care, so her other parent can go to work. The court applies the same percentages of income to these costs and adds it to the basic amount to come up with your child support order.
- Section 61.30 of the Florida Statutes allows judges to deviate from the basic child support amount when circumstances warrant it. If your child attends private school and you're paying the tuition, the court can factor this into your child support order. However, it's not a "quid pro quo" calculation or an even exchange. If your child support is $600 a month, and if you pay $600 per month in tuition costs, this doesn't erase your child support obligation. A judge would most likely subtract the tuition from your income and calculate your child support at the lesser amount. This would have the effect of reducing your child support obligation somewhat to allow for the tuition payments you're making. If it results in a 5 percent difference in your child support obligation, Section 61.30 allows the judge to do this without fuss. If the difference is more than 5 percent, the judge must explain his decision in a written memo that becomes part of the court order.
- If your child is already attending private school at the time you and her other parent part ways, you can ask the judge to consider the tuition costs as part of your original support order. But if your child begins attending private school after you already have a support order in place, you would have to file a special motion and ask the court to modify your child support to include the new tuition costs. The judge might question whether private school is even really necessary, especially if both parents don't agree that the child should not attend public school.
- Florida child support automatically terminates when your child graduates from high school or turns 18, whichever is later. The Florida statutes do not force a parent to pay for college tuition costs after this time. Parents can do so voluntarily by agreement, but no judge will force it on a parent, and it wouldn't affect child support because child support is no longer payable.
