College expenses and child support

Paying for college is one of the largest costs parents face, and for separated parents it raises a question the basic child support guidelines don’t answer. Most guideline schedules stop at the age of majority or the end of high school. Whether a parent can be required to help with tuition, housing and books after that is a matter of state law, and the states have come out in very different places. This guide sets out the main approaches, how courts that can order college support decide, and the practical steps that matter most.

Three approaches across the states

Among the states this site covers with a verified official source, the rules fall into three groups.

A court may order college support. In Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Utah and Washington, a court has authority to order one or both parents to contribute to a child’s education after high school, or to continue support while the child is in college. That’s 11 states.

Only by agreement. In California, Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia, a court won’t impose college support on its own, but parents can agree to it, usually in a divorce settlement or parenting plan. Once that agreement is part of a court order, it can generally be enforced like the rest of the order.

No court-ordered college support. In Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Rhode Island, Texas and West Virginia, the official sources provide no college support beyond the end of the support duty. The law can change in either direction. Iowa, for instance, used to allow a postsecondary education subsidy; under the current Iowa Code § 598.21F, a court may not order one, a change that applies to orders entered or pending from July 2025.

For 20 of the states this site covers, no official source on college support has been located yet; check the state’s statute or agency before relying on either answer. The table below summarizes each state’s position alongside the age at which support usually ends.

The when child support ends by state table shows each state’s college-support provision alongside its end age, with the official source for each row.

How courts decide whether to order it

Where a court can order college support, it is a judgment call, not a formula. The statutes usually list factors and leave the weighing to the judge.

Washington’s law is one of the most detailed. Under its postsecondary support statute, the child support schedule is only advisory for postsecondary support. The court first decides whether the child is in fact dependent on the parents, then considers factors including the child’s age, needs, prospects, desires, aptitudes and abilities; the expectations the parents had for the child when they were together; the kind of education sought; and the parents’ education, standard of living and current and future resources. It also considers what support the child would have received had the parents stayed together.

New York frames the question more broadly. Under Family Court Act § 413, a court may award educational expenses for post-secondary, private, special or enriched education when it finds, having regard to the circumstances of the case and the parties and the child’s best interests, that this is appropriate “as justice requires.” The same provision covers private school before college, discussed in private school tuition and child support.

Across states, the recurring considerations are:

• The parents’ ability to pay, including income, assets and other obligations.
• The child’s ability and seriousness, measured by grades, enrollment and progress.
• What the family would likely have done, based on the parents’ own education and stated plans.
• The cost of the school and the aid available, including scholarships, grants, the child’s own earnings and savings such as education accounts.

No single factor decides the outcome, and two courts can weigh the same facts differently.

Conditions on the child

College support usually comes with strings attached to the student. Washington requires the child to enroll in an accredited academic or vocational school, actively pursue a course of study, stay in good academic standing and share academic records with both parents; support is suspended automatically while the child falls short. Missouri continues support for a child in college or vocational school only while the child carries a minimum credit load, achieves grades sufficient to reenroll and sends each parent a transcript at the start of each semester (§ 452.340 RSMo), and only until the child turns 21.

Age caps are common. Support for a student can run to 23 in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Hawaii, and to 21 in Oregon, which treats an eligible student as a “child attending school.” These caps apply to students; support for an adult child who can’t become self-supporting because of a disability follows separate rules, covered in child support for adult children with disabilities.

How college support relates to regular support

College support can take two forms, and the difference matters for the amount. Some states simply extend regular child support while the child is a student, so the guideline amount continues. Others order a separate contribution to education costs, often split between the parents in proportion to their incomes and sometimes paid straight to the school.

As a reference point, in Missouri, parents earning $90,000 and $45,000 have a guideline amount of $888 for one child. Whether that continues during college, and how tuition is split on top of it, depends on the state’s rules and the order. The child support calculator shows the guideline amount for any state; it does not estimate college contributions, which courts set case by case. Courts can deviate from the guidelines, and our guide on deviating from the guidelines explains how.

Deadlines, agreements and taxes

Timing is often decisive. Several states require a request for college support to be filed before support would otherwise end. In Indiana, a petition for help with college costs must be filed before support ends at 19. In New Jersey, the parent the child lives with must ask to continue support for a full-time student within a set window around the child’s birthday. Once support has ended, reopening it is difficult or impossible in many states. Our guide on when child support ends covers each state’s end age.

In states where college support exists only by agreement, the wording of the agreement is everything. Clear terms on which costs are covered, whose income counts, the role of financial aid and any cap on cost avoid disputes later. Vague promises to “contribute to college” invite disputes.

College costs also interact with taxes and financial aid. Missouri’s statute, for example, tells courts to consider ordering a parent to give up the tax dependency claim for a college student in favor of the other parent when tax law and financial aid eligibility make that sensible. Our guide on child support and taxes explains who can claim a child and how that interacts with credits. If an order needs to change to add or end college support, the modification calculator shows the new guideline amount, and our guide on modifying an order covers the process.