Question

My husband and I divorced when our son was 10 years old.  He’s 16 now, and is starting to think about where he wants to go to college.   I am very supportive of his aspirations, and I think that my ex probably is too.  While we were married, we started an account for college savings, but it’s been a long time since either of us contributed much to it.  It’ll help with paying the first year of tuition (if our son goes to a state school), but after that we’ll have to find other ways to pay.  My ex has always been good about paying child support and other expenses, but it’s been a long time since we talked about paying for college.  What should I do to get my ex to help pay?

Answer

The first thing you should do is take a look at your child support order and see what it says about post-secondary educational support.  All child support orders have this provision, and there are a few different ways in which post-secondary educational support is dealt with on a child support order.  Probably the most common provision is for the issue to be “reserved” until the child is 18 or graduates from high school.  Other orders, however, will have specific provisions about how the parents will pay for college.

Once you’ve reviewed the order, you should get in touch your ex – preferably in writing – about your son’s plans for college.  The more specific you can be about his (realistic) post-high school options and the costs of each, the better.  See what your ex says – it may well be that the two of you can work out a plan for paying for college.

If you aren’t able to come to an agreement with your ex, then you may need to seek the assistance of the court, either by filing a motion to enforce your support order (if your support order already has provisions specifically setting out each parent’s responsibility for college expenses) or by filing a Petition for Modification of Child Support in which you ask the court to establish each parents’ obligation for post-secondary educational support (if your child support order has reserved the issue).

If you ask the court to order post-secondary educational support, the court will evaluate a number of factors to determine whether and to what extent the other parent should pay.  Washington statute RCW 26.19.090 lays out those standards.