TN Dad Due Hearing on Affording Private School Tuition
- At September 26, 2012
- By Miles Mason
- In Child Support
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Tennessee law case summary on private school tuition in Tennessee child support, divorce, and family law from the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
In Re Andrea A. R. – Private School Tuition in Tennessee Child Support Law
In the case of Andrea, the father appealed the order of a juvenile court that required him to pay private school tuition as an upward deviation from the presumptive child support amount. The parties involved in this case were in a brief relationship, which resulted in the birth of their child in May of 2003. In August of 2008, the mother filed a petition to establish parentage and set child support. In the petition, the mother alleged the father initially provided financial support but had stopped paying support in May of 2004, though he continued to pay daycare expenses. In December of 2008, the father requested genetic testing to determine he was the biological father. He was required to pay pendente lite child support $520 per month.
The father earned $20,000 per year through Rossi Family Services, Inc. The juvenile court found that the father was lacking in credibility because he sold a business, which was grossing $400,000 annually for no more than $20,000 in three payments. The court found the mother’s income was $1,300 and the father’s income was $2,239.56 per month. It then ordered the father to pay child support of $767 per month. It also ordered the father to pay the private school tuition of the child, which was $750 per month.
The father appealed the decision claiming that the trial court abused its discretion in assessing the tuition as an extraordinary educational expense in an arbitrary amount. He believed that the private schooling was inappropriate based on the financial abilities and lifestyle of the child and parents.
In the extraordinary educational expense guideline, the trial court is required first to consider whether the private elementary or secondary school is appropriate to the financial abilities of the parents and to the lifestyle of the child if the parents were living together. The trial court then must determine if the schooling is appropriate and, if so, it is to calculate the extraordinary education expenses separately and add them to the base child support award. In this case, the appeals court determined that the trial court did not make the required factual determinations and did not make specific determinations if the father had the ability to pay tuition of $442.50 per month in addition to child support obligations of $398.00 per month. The only notation of this ability is that the father paid for private schooling prior to the start of the proceedings, though at that time, tuition is all he was paying at the time.
The appeals court, therefore, reversed the tuition and then remanded the issue with the trial court to make an appropriate determination of if the private schooling is acceptable.
NO M2011-00574-COA-R3-JV, February 7, 2012.
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
Memphis divorce attorney, Miles Mason, Sr., JD, CPA, practices family law exclusively with the Miles Mason Family Law Group, PLC. To learn more about Tennessee child support laws, read and view:
