The education that your children receive will play a major role in their future success. From the peers that they interact with to the courses that they take, what they experience in school will shape their personalities and determine their future opportunities.
You and your spouse may have agreed years ago when you first started planning your family that private school was the right approach for your family. Whether you wanted to enroll your children at a school with a college preparatory curriculum or you wanted to send them to an institution that observes the same religion as your family, committing to private schooling often means making financial sacrifices for your children’s future educational opportunities.
Can you count on child support to help you cover the cost of private school tuition following a divorce?
Child support may not be enough
When you present your case to a judge and family court, your family’s current expenses will influence how much support the courts order. However, even if your ex makes a rather competitive salary, the chances are good that the child support payments ordered by the state will fall far short of the cost of private school tuition.
It will cost, on average, $19,667 per year per student to put your children through private schools in New York. Some schools are far more expensive than that, while others are much cheaper, with costs typically rising as children reach high school.
Unless your ex agrees voluntarily to cover those amounts in a settlement that you negotiate outside of court, it will be difficult to convince a judge to add more than a thousand dollars of extra support every month to cover tuition costs.
Parents have the option of setting their own arrangements
You don’t have to use the same formula that other families employ in your New York divorce. You and your ex can reach your own settlement about everything from parenting time and property division to spousal support and child support.
Especially if your ex is the one who feels strongly about the private education for your children, they may willingly make certain concessions when negotiating custody and support arrangements to ensure that the children receive the education that they want.
Learning more about the child support rules in New York and the options for your family during a divorce can help you minimize the disruption the divorce will cause for your children.
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