Now is a good time to start planning for post-secondary education

By Tony Poland, LegalMatters Staff • Having a plan for a child’s post-secondary education can help divorced or separated parents avoid misunderstanding and conflict, says Toronto family lawyer A. Julia P. Tremain.

“When it comes to issues such as your child’s education, it is much better that parents who are separating start thinking about it and talking about it than waiting until the last minute and fighting about it,” says Tremain, a partner with Waddell Phillips Professional Corporation. “Many parents will include provisions in a separation agreement to deal with post-secondary education. Sometimes they are fairly general, other times the agreement will specify the exact responsibilities of both parents.

“The parents may disagree on how the plan will work. If they cannot resolve it, they may have to go dispute resolution,” she tells LegalMattersCanada.ca. “This is the type of issue a family lawyer will advise parents to start thinking about at an early stage.”

Child support doesn’t necessary end at 18

Some may assume that child support ends when a person turns 18, which is the age of majority of Ontario, but there are exceptions, Tremain says.

“There are two acts that cover this, either the Divorce Act and the Children’s Law Reform Act,” she explains. “Basically, support continues for a child after they turn 18 if they are in school full time or if they are unable to work or go to school because of a disability.”

If the child is pursuing a post-secondary education there are issues to be considered, Tremain says, including:

• who pays for tuition and books;
• who is responsible for living expenses such as food and rent;
• how scholarships affect support;
• who does the child live with between school years and how is support divided; and
• is the child expected to contribute to their educational expenses with a part-time or summer job.

No one has the ability to predict their child’s future but Tremain says parents should at least consider contingencies for the unexpected. For example, some students take a “victory lap” after their final year of high school, either in an effort to improve their grades so they can get into university or to take some time off before continuing their post-secondary studies.

Parents may not factor in the ‘victory lap’

“Many times, parents may not have factored in something like a victory lap into their separation agreement,” she says. “Determining support really depends on the child’s plans. If they are doing the victory lap to pursue more full-time school to upgrade their marks to get into university, that may be a situation where child support might still be payable. However, if that child is just planning to hang out for a year, the assumption would be that they should do something to help either pay for university or to pay their own expenses as they get some work experience. 

• Child custody issues can present a hurdle when moving to a new city 
• Order for parental visit at Turkish resort unusual and concerning
• SCC child support judgment is ‘a great decision for clarity’

“What might happen is that a parent could be responsible for paying support for a few months after a child graduates from high school because it may take some time to get a job,” Tremain adds. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that support should go on indefinitely for a child who’s doing nothing and there is no reason for them to not work.”

Determining how long to support a child who is pursuing a degree can also raise questions, she says. Parents may not know their child’s vocational path when they separate and there may be different expectations when it comes to paying the bills. For example, should support end after a child receives their first degree or should it continue if they pursue a master’s degree or a PhD?

Children may be expected to contribute

“It is assumed that parents will pay for the first degree, but should they pay for the second degree? It is usually fact dependent on the family situation,” Tremain says. “At some point, the child can be expected to contribute to their own education.

“It has always been an interesting question to me,” she adds. “If you have parents who have not separated or divorced, no one is going to tell them that they must fund their child’s education. Most parents would help, and do, with the first degree. But, even in an intact family, parents would be justified in saying, ‘If you want to pursue a second degree, you are an adult, you are on your own. You have to figure this out yourself.’”

Tremain says without a specific plan for post-secondary education, separated or divorced parents could find themselves turning to the court for help.

“There is case law that goes both ways with second degrees. Again, with so many family law cases, the outcome is really fact dependent,” she says.

More from Waddell Phillips Professional Corporation:

Failing to adequately safeguard data results in $3.44M settlement