Can I Pay Less Child Support While I Go Back To School To Earn A Degree?

Child support obligations are not set in stone, and courts have broad discretion to set aside or modify such obligations for several reasons, including simply because the circumstances of one or both of the parents have changed since the support order was originally entered. A parent losing their job or suffering a significant reduction to their income are likely good reasons for the court to modify a support order, but it is also well established that relief from support obligations should not be granted if a party is voluntarily unemployed. The same rule is also applicable in instances when a parent is voluntarily under-employed; for example, a highly skilled computer programmer who could earn $100,000 per year in that field choosing to work as a substitute teacher instead and earn just $30,000 per year. Most would probably agree that a parent should not be permitted to escape their child support obligation because they made the decision not to work or not work up to anywhere near their full potential. Notwithstanding this general rule, consider the following: A husband and wife have a child; upon divorce, the parents enter a consent order requiring the husband to pay the wife an amount each month for child support; a few years later, the husband, who is still in only in his late-twenties and working two jobs, realizes that neither of his jobs have any opportunity for growth and he has no long-term future with either company; the husband concludes that if he is to establish a well-paying career and be a good provider for his child he must earn his Bachelor’s Degree; therefore, in order to better himself and provide a better future for his child, the husband decides to leave both jobs in order to attend college full time to earn a degree; the husband believes attending school full time, rather than keeping one or both jobs and attending school part time, is the better choice for himself and the child because he will be able to earn his degree much faster, and therefore be able to generate more income for the child’s benefit in a shorter period of time; accordingly, the husband asks the court to have his child support obligation substantially reduced while he is attending school and not working.

A request to have a child support obligation modified based on the above facts seems a lot more legitimate and genuine than when the same request is made by a parent who doesn’t want to be employed simply because they are lazy, unmotivated, or just don’t care. Perhaps many would agree that reducing child support on a short term basis in order to permit a parent to earn a college degree, which will likely result in that parent earning a much higher income, is actually in the child’s best interest, albeit for the long term. After all, in this day and age it is very difficult to establish a well-paying career for one’s self without (at least) a Bachelor’s Degree, and having a higher income will be very helpful for paying expenses such as the child’s college education and other necessaries. Recently, however, a court rejected, and the Appellate Division affirmed, an application to temporarily reduce child support based on very similar circumstances to the above hypothetical in the case of Zavaglia v. Bray. The trial court noted that the husband’s loss of employment while he would be attending college was not only voluntary, but also temporary, and therefore no modification of the support order was justified.

Overall, while one’s desire to better themselves and increase their earning potential for the benefit of their child is certainly commendable, based on Zavaglia, it does not appear that courts will permit parents to forsake their child support obligations, even on a short term basis, for this reason alone.