During your marriage, you and your spouse have tried to stick to a tight budget. Your primary reason for doing so is having the financial means to send your kids to private school. Now that you are heading for a divorce, though, your soon-to-be ex-spouse seems to believe private schooling is no longer necessary.
According to Private School Review, tuition for private academies in Maryland costs an average of nearly $13,000 per year. While you obviously do not want to uproot their kids from their school, you simply cannot afford tuition without some help.
Relevant factors
Like in other places, judges in Maryland must consider the best interests of the involved children when making orders, including child support. Luckily, it is not uncommon for judges to require parents to pay for private schooling, provided doing so is in the best interests of the kids.
To determine whether private school is best for your children, a judge is likely to consider a few different factors. Among others, these include the following:
- Your children’s educational history
- Your children’s special or unique needs
- Your family traditions
- Your children’s performance in school
Proportional contributions
Because you and your soon-to-be ex-spouse contributed to private school tuition in the past, a judge may not want to rock the boat. Indeed, if private schooling is best for your children, a judge may order you and your co-parent to make proportional contributions. That is, you and your spouse may have to set aside a proportionate share of your respective incomes for your children’s private school tuition.
As you can see, determining which co-parent pays for private school can be tricky. Ultimately, though, if your kids are already in private school, you probably have better odds of keeping them there.