Should a parent prorate child support to include the child’s 18th birthday?
What would you think of a parent who makes the last child support payment prorated 7 days because the child’s 18th birthday falls on the 7th?
I see nothing illegal or immoral about the principle of child support ending the day the child legally emancipates. Child support is for minor children, and when a child emancipates, the child is no longer a minor.
But check and see if the child support payor (also known as the child support “obligor”—the payee is the “obligee”) is allowed to prorate. The law in Utah (where I practice divorce and family law) is:
Utah Code Section 78B-12-219. Adjustment when child becomes emancipated.
(1) When a child becomes 18 years old or graduates from high school during the child’s normal and expected year of graduation, whichever occurs later, or if the child dies, marries, becomes a member of the armed forces of the United States, or is emancipated in accordance with Title 80, Chapter 7, Emancipation, the base child support award is automatically adjusted to the base combined child support obligation for the remaining number of children due child support, shown in the table that was used to establish the most recent order, using the incomes of the parties as specified in that order or the worksheets, unless otherwise provided in the child support order.
So I read § 78B-12-219(1) to mean that child support ends for a child at the very moment when the child becomes 18 years old or graduates from high school during the child’s normal and expected year of graduation, whichever occurs later, or if the child dies, marries, becomes a member of the armed forces of the United States, or is emancipated by court order. This would mean that child support payments could certainly be prorated only to cover the number of days in the month that a child is a minor or (if the normal and expected high school graduation date follows the child’s the child 8th birthday) the number of days in the month until the date of the child’s high school graduation, not the entire month.
If the Utah legislature had intended for § 78B-12-219(1) to provide that child support ends at the end of the month the child becomes 18 years old or graduates from high school during the child’s normal and expected year of graduation, it could have done so, but it did not. That stated, if child support is collected by the state child support collection agency (in Utah that’s the Office of Recovery Services “ORS”), my guess is that ORS collects for the whole month and does not collect only the amount prorated up to the point that the child becomes 18 years old or graduates from high school during the child’s normal and expected year of graduation. I’m not even sure ORS would prorate if asked to prorate.
Utah Family Law, LC | divorceutah.com | 801-466-9277
Tags: adult, Child Support, divorce, divorce costs, divorce law, emancipation, family law, minor child, Utah code