The purpose of this adjustment is to appropriately recognize the economic burden of parents who have older children whom they are supporting beyond the age of minority.
The Kansas Child Support Guidelines provide:
A. If the parties have a written agreement for a parent to continue to support a child beyond the age of majority, it may be considered in setting child support.
B. The fact that a parent is currently supporting a child of the parties in college (or past the age of majority) may be considered if the parent having primary residency seeks to increase the child support for the benefit of any children still under the age of eighteen.
The amount allowed should be entered on Line E.
Note that the adjustment is available in two different circumstances:
A. when the parties have a written agreement, OR
B. when the parties have no written agreement, but the primary residential parent of minor children of the parties seeks an increase in support for the younger children
This adjustment is sometimes called the “college expense adjustment.” It is most easily understood as an adjustment in the child support payable for the younger children in a family to reflect the reduction in parental resources arising from continuing to support older children for whom child support is no longer being calculated.
For example, if the combined parental income of the parents is $100,000.00 a year but $10,000.00 of that income is used to pay the college tuition and other costs of a child at college, then the family really only has $90,000.00 with which to meet the needs of the remaining members of the family. If the child support for the younger members of the family were calculated without regard to the funds committed to the adult children, using $100,000.00 as the parental income, a significant factor in the family’s economic reality is ignored.
But how is the adjustment to be determined?
The most direct approach would, of course, be to simply reduce the gross income of each parent by the amount expended by that parent during the year for the support of adult children. Unfortunately, the official child support worksheet provides no line for such a deduction in stating the gross income and the definition of “gross income” does not allow such an adjustment.
The fact that the Agreement Past Minority adjustment is made in Section E (after the child support has been calculated for the younger children of the family) makes the calculation of the adjustment more complex.
You cannot simply reduce the child support payable for the younger children by the amount spent for the adult children because that would, in effect, require the minor children (not the parents) to pay for their older sibling’s education.
For example, if the three younger children of the family are entitled to a monthly child support of$500.00 per month from their nonresidential father and he also spends $200.00 per month for the support of an older child at college, it would be inappropriate to reduce the younger children’s support to $300.00 per month because doing so would throw the burden of educating the older child on the younger children, not on the parents.
Since a “dollar for dollar” adjustment is inappropriate, then, but some adjustment should be made, the question becomes “how should the adjustment be calculated?”
Several approaches could be considered: If, for example, the $500.00 per month in child support for the younger children of the family represents 10% of the nonresidential father’s monthly income ($5,000.00), one might be tempted to allow 10% of the monthly college expenses ($20.00)as an adjustment. But that approach is really backward.
The college expenses represent only a portion of the total combined parental incomes (let’s say 10%) and the child support obligation of each parent also represents only a portion of the total parental incomes. In order to determine the proportional impact of the support of the older children on the support of the younger children, the dollars of the parental income devoted to child support should be reduced by the portion of the parental income devoted to the support of older children (10%). Multiplying 10% times the “normal” child support payable by each parent yields an adjustment amount. If the monthly child support for the younger children is $500.00 per month, then the adjustment in this example would be 10% of the support amount or $50 per month.
A more accurate approach is to determine the amount of the adjustment by calculating the Child support Worksheet twice as follows:
A. In the first calculation, make no adjustment for the cost of supporting any adult children. Determine the child support payable for the minor children of the family.
B. In the second calculation, reduce the parents’ monthly gross incomes by the amount of the average monthly expense paid by each parent for the support of the adult children. This will produce a lower child support amount for the younger children than in the first calculation.
C. Subtract the amount of child support payable by each parent determined in Step 2 from the amount payable by each parent determined in Step 1.
D. Insert the amount obtained in Step C for each parent (as a negative amount) on the “Agreement Past Minority” adjustment line in Section E for each parent.
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