One issue that often arises is what happens to child support when a child graduates from high school.  Let's suppose you have three children and are paying child support. Your oldest graduated from high school last May, but you are still paying the same child support you were paying before she graduated. Is there anything you can do to lower your support and get back the extra support you paid over the last year?

 

     The first thing you need to do is dust off your Decree of Divorce or most recent Order to pay Child Support. If you cannot find it, depending on what county you live in, you can look on www.oscn.net or get a copy from the court clerk of the appropriate county. The Divorce Decree or Order will describe whether the child support should have changed when your child graduated. If it does, you can ask the Court to order a credit for the support you have paid over and above what should have been paid. Usually, the Court will lower the child support you owe currently for a period until it equals the credit you are entitled to receive.

 

     If the Decree or Order does not specify whether your payments were to change, you will have to file a motion to modify child support. You will want to consult the child support guidelines for the two children you are currently paying support for, based on current income. The Court has the option to use current income, average the previous three years or impute income about what each parent should be paying. If you are making quite a bit more money now, your support could actually go up, so it is best to run the guidelines before you file the motion to modify.

 

     The Court generally cannot go backward in modifying child support. But, the change in child support will be modified from the date the motion was filed rather than when the Court issues the order. So it is best to file the motion as quickly as possible. The Court will then establish your income, look at how many overnight visits you have (child support is lowered if it is over one hundred twenty nights per year), and compute the support based on the guildelines.