The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

Divorced parents cannot be ordered to pay for their child’s dental school per a decision of the Indiana Supreme Court.

We…note that married parents have no legal obligation to pay for their children’s educational expenses beyond high school, let alone graduate school expenses. Thus, while this Court certainly understands and values the amount of discretion we give our trial judges, particularly in family law matters, we do not believe that it is the court’s province to order a divorced parent to pay for a child’s graduate or professional school under the statutory language as written, without clear instruction and guidance from the Legislature that it intends to confer this significant authority and discretion on the courts. Of course, even though we interpret the statute to exclude graduate and professional school expenses, this does not leave children seeking to have their divorcing or divorced parents assist them with their graduate and professional school expenses without a remedy. Parents are still free to agree to pay all, or a portion of, their children’s graduate or professional school expenses in their settlement agreements. The courts can enforce such agreements.

We hold that the term “postsecondary,” as used in Ind. Code § 31-16-6-2, does not include graduate or professional school expenses, particularly in light of other action by the Legislature that limits parents’ financial obligations to their adult children, and the fact that an interpretation including graduate and professional school expenses would make Indiana an outlier on this issue without a clear expression by the Legislature that it intends that result. We therefore reverse the trial court’s order that Father pay the costs of his daughter, Hunter’s, dental school.

(Mike Frisch)