During a divorce, taking care of the child’s needs is of utmost importance to the parents. Parents want and need to attend the best interests of the child, however, the best interests of the child has no single definition and varies for every family’s unique situation. Determining the child’s best interests can be even more complex with a special needs child.
Unfortunately, child support guidelines often do not satisfy the needs of a special needs child. The child support guidelines do not take into account the extra costs involved in raising a child with special needs, such as specialized therapy, equipment, medications, special dietary costs, special schooling, and many other considerations. If divorcing parents follow average child support guidelines, the support might not actually cover the needs of the child.
It may be difficult to convince the spouse paying support that they need to pay more than the guidelines suggest. However, if the special needs child has predictable recurring expenses, then most courts will have the additional costs added on to the child support award. Predictable, recurring costs might be special schooling tuition or routine therapies. Since these costs are a regular part of the family’ life, the court will usually allow the expenses to be added to the child support award.
When assessing the needs of the child, you may want to provide your family law attorney with school records that document the disability and describe the educational program that has been designed to meet the unique needs of the child. These would be used to show why it is appropriate to deviate from the regular child support guidelines.These records should include:
- The individual assessment report that includes test scores for the child’s intellectual functioning levels, as well as academic performance levels
- Behavioral information and suggestions for instructional approaches that address the unique needs of the child
- Medical records that document the disability and outline prescribed treatment
- The current Individualized Education Program (IEP)
- Additional reports such as psychological reports, speech evaluations, assistive technology evaluations, functional behavioral evaluations, occupational therapy evaluations, and physical therapy evaluations.
All of the above information should allow divorcing parents to create better accommodations for their child’s needs.
Usually, child support is terminated at the age of majority, meaning when the child is no longer a minor. However, there is an exception to the rule when the child’ majority occurs when the child has special needs, or a disability. The court defines “disability: as the inability for the adult child to adequately care for themselves while earning a living wage. Under a California statute, the parent’s duty to support an incapacitated child is extended, regardless of age, when the child cannot earn a living and is without sufficient means. In such situations, the court can order support past the child’s majority.
In addition to child support, divorcing parents of special needs children should work with their family law attorney’s to attend to all of the child’s need that may be affected by the divorce, such as visitation agreements, educational decision making, health and medical care, and social and recreation opportunities. All of these issues may be challenging when a child has special needs, but can easily be resolved with the help of an attorney.
