Under Missouri law, parents must provide for their minor children. And if the child is continuously enrolled in an institution of vocational or higher education by the October following high school graduation, this obligation continues. Continous enrollment has been interpreted broadly as to encourage the pursuit of higher education.
Recently, the Missouri Court of Appeals got a chance to further define what is continuous regarding vocational schools. In this case, the father was obligated to make child support payments to his ex-wife, the mother. The term of these child support payments were effectively extended by the child upon his enrollment in a local vo-tech. After completing a 60 week course for a HVAC diploma, the child did not enroll in the school’s next ten week session, which began December 4, 2006. The child did, however, enroll in the ten week session beginning February 12, 2007. Thus, the child was effectively not in school for 10 weeks. The father claimed that this failure to enroll terminated his child support obligations.
The court reasoned that because the vocational school did not adopt a typical semester format with corresponding summer and winter breaks, the court could imply from the legislature’s “obvious intent . . . to treat vocational and college education equally” that the child’s failure to enroll was the equivalent of such a summer or winter break.
– ksmolawyer
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