Can You Make Your Ex Pay for Your Child’s College in a Florida Divorce Settlement?
Regardless of marital status, Florida law requires both parents to support their children until they reach the age of majority, which is 18. This includes paying for private school if that is how the parents decide to educate their child. But what about paying for college?
As a strictly legal matter, no Florida law requires parents to pay for the college education of a child who has reached majority. The Florida Supreme Court noted in a 1984 divorce case, Grapin v. Grapin, that, “While most parents willingly assist their adult children in obtaining a higher education that is increasingly necessary in today’s fast-changing world, any duty to do so is a moral rather than a legal one.”
“Secondary Education” Does Not Include College
In Grapin, the Supreme Court established that a judge could not, as part of a Florida divorce decree, directly or indirectly order a parent to pay for an adult child’s college education. That said, parents may agree to pay for their child’s college as part of a marital settlement agreement (MSA) to their divorce. As with any contract, however, the MSA’s terms need to be clear as to each parent’s obligations.
For example, earlier this year the Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal reversed a trial court’s interpretation of a MSA that held a father was required to pay half of his children’s college tuition expenses. The father and mother divorced in 2008. They had two minor children at the time.
The parties negotiated a marital settlement agreement, which provided that the father would be responsible for “50 percent of any secondary educational tuition and/or related expenses for all of the children.”
In 2023, the mother filed a motion to hold the father in contempt of their final divorce judgment, alleging he failed to pay for any of their now-adult eldest child’s college tuition and expenses.
The crux of the legal dispute turned on the meaning of “secondary education.” The father maintained that only covered the children’s high school expenses. College was considered “postsecondary education” and therefore, in his view, not covered by the MSA.
The trial court agreed that college was not “secondary education.” But the judge noted there was additional language in the MSA stating the father was not financially responsible for any child who did not “attend a secondary educational institution prior to the age of 21.” The judge thought this made no sense, as nobody attends high school between 18 and 21. Based on this apparent ambiguity, the judge ruled in favor of the wife and held the father was liable for the child’s college tuition.
The Fifth District reversed, finding there was no ambiguity. The MSA provision only referenced “secondary education” and made no reference to “college or college related expenses.” The father’s financial obligations ended when the child left high school.
Contact a Tampa Child Support Lawyer Today
One reason the parents in the case discussed above may have run into problems is that they relied on an online legal service to draft their MSA without the assistance of a qualified divorce attorney. Do not make the same mistake in your own case. If you need to speak with an experienced Tampa child support lawyer, contact Florida Law Advisers, P.A., today to schedule a free consultation.
Source:
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14944145756787813458
