Schooling comes with a range of costs including both the upfront school fees and the ongoing additional costs such as the cost of school uniforms, book lists costs, and additional costs for excursions. These costs can be further complicated when divorce is involved. If one parent has insisted on a certain school there can be some arguments over which parent is then responsible for both the upfront fees and the ongoing costs of school. 

Proportional responsibility

Generally speaking, the parents will take on proportional responsibility for the costs of raising the child. Child support payments provide a way to even out the financial capacity of both parents, by helping the parent with less financial capacity provide a lifestyle that is similar to the type of lifestyle that they would have had if their parents had have remained together. This includes housing, schooling and other aspects of lifestyle including after school activities. The items related to schooling might need to travel between houses as the child has access visits, such as textbooks or expensive uniform items like blazers. 

Choice of schooling

If the overall financial capacity of the parents is not that high, but one parent is very eager for their child to go to a certain school (such as prestigious and expensive private school that all of the children in the family have attended) they may need to take on more responsibility for child support payments to cover these costs. The choice of schooling should be negotiated in that case, but it can't be forced upon the other parent to send the child to a school that costs more than can be reasonably afforded. 

Upfront payments

If one parent has a lower level of financial capacity they may find it hard to make large payments once a year. In this case, up to 30% of child support can be used as a direct payment for items such as school fees. This may be a good way for parents that have more financial capacity to support their child's education while reducing their ongoing child support payments. These can be made directly to the school and a receipt lodged with the child support agency.

Support your child's education is an important part of your ongoing commitment to parenting your child. If you are struggling to engage with you ex-spouse to get adequate financial support or contributions for their schooling then it can be sensible to get your family lawyer, such as Marino Law, involved and start the mediation process. 

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