Can Adults With Disabilities Get Child Support From Their Families?

Under most circumstances, child support obligations end when the child has both turned 18 and graduated from high school.  Of course, children who become financially independent of their parents immediately upon graduating from high school are a rare exception to the rule.  Most adults in their 20s and 30s depend on their parents financially in some capacity, unless the parents depend financially on their sons and daughters.  The family courts have made it clear that it will not order parents to financially support their adult children; in practical terms, that means that if you think that your ex spends too much or too little money supporting your adult children, that is your problem to deal with, not the court’s.  Time and again, the family courts wash their hands of the mother who pays for her daughter’s drug rehabilitation and then asks the court for more alimony, the father who pays for his children’s college tuition while his ex-wife spends on herself, and the ex-wife who spoils, or even houses, the grandchildren she and her ex-husband share.  An exception is when the adult son or daughter has a diagnosed disability that prevents him or her from earning employment income.  To find out more about court-ordered support for adults with disabilities, contact a Boca Raton child support lawyer.

How Korey Got Dependent Support From Her Dad After She Reached Adulthood

The most straightforward way for former spouses to ensure that their children with disabilities continue to get financial support is to build this provision into the parenting plan while the children are still minors.  If the court determines that the children will be unable to become financially independent of their parents, it may issue a parenting plan that continues indefinitely, instead of one that terminates when the children reach adulthood.

If the court does not do this, the young adults may petition the family court for dependent support.  Unfortunately, these petitions sometimes run into obstacles.  Korey is a young woman with Down’s syndrome; she is also missing several fingers.  Korey’s parents divorced when she was a minor, and her father paid child support until the child support order terminated when Korey was 18.  When she was 19, she petitioned the court for dependent support from her father, but the court dismissed her first petition at her father’s request.  Korey appealed the decision, and the appeals court awarded her dependent support.  It cited as precedent a case of a 50-year-old man with disabilities who had successfully petitioned the court for dependent support, decades after he reached adulthood.  The time to request ongoing support for people with disabilities is now, but it is not too late if you did not do it when you were a minor.

Contact Schwartz | White About Court-Ordered Support for Adults With Disabilities

A South Florida family law attorney can help you request support for your adult son or daughter who has a disability.  Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.

Source:

scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17582720859582798899&q=divorce+hollywood&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10&as_ylo=2015&as_yhi=2025