Understanding Special Needs in Family Law
Do you or someone you know have a child with special needs and you’re not sure how that relates to the parental obligations? My name is Carl Birkhead. I’m an attorney with Wirth Law Office. I’ve been practicing law for about seven years. I want to help you make law easy by just talking a little bit about how special needs play a role in the family law process.
The biggest way that I see this come into play is when it comes to child support. Regardless of what the needs are for the child, child support ends up being a huge factor, not just for the medical side though. Most of the time when you have a child support order, the order is set to terminate either when the child turns 18 or when the child graduates high school, whichever comes first. There’s a limit to that because sometimes the child doesn’t graduate high school and I know GEDs are a thing, so the kind of catch to that is after the child turns 20, even if they haven’t graduated high school, it still gets cut off usually.
Extended Child Support for Special Needs
The exception though is when you have a child with special needs that are to the extent that they’re not able to take care of themselves even after they reach the age of adulthood. You don’t see this very often, but you do see this in cases where oftentimes this is a child who, I say child, it’s an adult, but it’s a child who still needs care, still needs help, still needs support even after they’ve turned 18 because of what their special needs are. Oftentimes whoever was the custodial parent for this child is still going to have this child living in their home because, for whatever reason, they’re just unable to support themselves on their own.
They’re unable to maintain a steady job. They’re unable to drive themselves. They’re unable to live alone and take care of themselves. It’s a heartbreaking situation, but it does happen. And in those cases, once you’re able to show the medical need, once you’re able to show the conditions which prohibit this child from being able to be an autonomous adult in society, the courts can and I’ve seen them do or will extend that child support obligation past when the child turns 18 or gets out of high school.
Get Help Today
It’s a heartbreaking situation. And I truly hate when I see it happen because it’s heartbreaking to see any child in a situation where they’re not able to take care of themselves after they grow up. If you are in a situation where you think that this applies to you or you have some questions or you think you need some help, please contact us at 918-879-1681 or visit MakeLawEasy.com. My name is Carl Birkhead and I want to help you to make law easy. Thank you.
