Educational Expenses Must Be Shown Clearly in Child Support Order
Tennessee child custody and child support modification case summary.
Jenny Sue Taylor v. George Green Taylor, III
The mother and father in this Hamilton County, Tennessee, case were divorced in 2014. The mother was named primary residential parent of the two children, with the father being awarded 139 parenting days. The father was ordered to pay child support of $727 per month.
Various motions followed, including the father’s 2020 request for additional parenting time. He claimed that both children wanted more parenting days with him, and he asked to be named primary residential parent. A hearing was held in 2021, and the trial court granted only a slight change to the summer schedule. Child support was set at $731 per month. This included an upward departure to reflect private school tuition. Ultimately, this was changed to $815.21 per pay period, to cover both child support and tuition. The mother was also awarded attorney’s fees of $23,000. The father appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
That court first turned to the issue of child support, which amounted to $731 plus 49% of the tuition. The appeals court did agree that the final order was “perplexing,” and that it did not specify an amount for the educational expenses. Therefore, it vacated the order regarding $815.21 per pay period. It ordered the lower court to calculate those expenses separately. In particular, the trial court had not considered recent tuition bills, and the appeals court held that more detail was necessary in the order.
The appeals court did affirm the award of attorney’s fees, with a small modification.
For these reasons, the Court of Appeals vacated the lower court’s order in part, modified it, and remanded the case. Cost of appeal were taxed equally to both parties.
No. E2021-01281-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Oct. 27, 2022).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
To learn more, see Child Support Laws in Tennessee.
To learn more, see Child Support Modification in Tennessee | How to Modify Child Support.
See also Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring actual examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.
