5 “College” Considerations When Creating Your Divorce Agreement

1. Child support usually only continues until children are 21 or finish college (with the assumption that it’s completed within 4 years of high school). The belief is that at that time, the children should be self-sufficient. The reality is often far from that. Who’s going to pay the kids’ expenses, if that’s not the case? In addition, any of the following could delay college graduation:
   
   • The child could have a mental or physical illness that prevents them from attending school during one or more semesters (or prevents them from attending school full time).
   • A worldwide pandemic could affect how long schooling takes…
   • What if your child wants to take a “gap” year or a semester off?
   • What if your child chooses a major that is longer than a traditional 4-year program?
   • What if your child decides that college isn’t for them?
   
   These may seem like extreme examples…but trust me, it happens more than you think. Coming to a pre-arranged agreement (in writing) on how you’re going to share expenses, should something unexpected happen can save a lot of grief (and costly fighting) down the road.

2. If you are divorcing prior to the age your children are choosing a college…how are you going to handle the discussions/agreements on where the child is allowed to apply to college? What if one spouse doesn’t feel a private college is necessary, and the other wants the child to have that option? (Child support obligations rarely require anything more than the current price of an in-state school)…so if you don’t have adequate savings…how will the cost/decisions be handled? Who pays for SAT prep, college counseling, college application submissions, etc.?

3. Even when they get to college, expenses include much more than just tuition and room/board. How will you share other expenses such as books, computers, transportation to and from school, (possibly) a car, parking permits, fraternities/sororities, semesters abroad, etc.? Anything else that you don’t think of in advance…? What happens if you don’t agree that an expense is necessary? Can you set a threshold that anything under a certain amount must be split 50/50 should one parent deem it necessary?

4. How are you going to share the financial “ownership” and sharing of things related to college, such as 529 accounts, filling out financial aid forms, and such? 529 accounts can only be “owned” by one party…so unless you require that the other spouse be given login information or set them up to receive statements…they will have to trust that the other parent will share that information and get consent before making withdrawals.
   That doesn’t always happen…so if it’s not a harmonious split – taking precautions ahead of time, such as putting one child’s account in one spouse’s name, and another child’s in the other spouse’s name, can pre-emptively help even the playing field and promote transparency.

5. Many times an agreement will allow the child support “payor” to deduct the cost of room/board from child support for any children attending college. What happens if schooling becomes remote and they end up back home? Or they attend a community college that doesn’t offer room/board but they choose to live in an apartment – what figures do you use for that calculation? And does that “savings” then go directly to the child for their living/food expenses?

6. How will you handle logistics? Who’s in charge of dropping off/picking up child(ren) from college? Will you do it together? What about parents’ weekend? Realistically, all of this can’t be included in every agreement. And not every divorce has spouses that aren’t reasonable and won’t work together for the sake of their children. But if yours has even the slight potential to end up that way at some point… the more you can come to some agreement in advance, the less chance there is for problems in the future.