MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A decision by the Alabama Supreme Court from earlier this month could have an impact on how students of divorced parents finance their college educations.
The state’s high court ruled on Oct. 4. that non-custodial parents should no longer be legally required to help pay for their child’s college expenses, The Opelika-Auburn News reported Sunday.
The case, Christopher v. Christopher, began in Limestone County after a divorced father asked his estranged wife to help finance their son’s college education. A court ordered the woman to pay a quarter of the boy’s education costs and the decision was upheld by the Court of Civil Appeals before it was heard by the state Supreme Court.
Now, arrangements between divorced couples financing children’s educations must be voluntary.
Stephanie Pollard, an attorney from Auburn, says the decision reversed one of the state’s most controversial family law cases.
In 1989, the Alabama Supreme Court determined in the Bayliss v. Bayliss case that non-custodial parents should help pay the cost of some educational expenses for children who were at least 19 years old and unable to support themselves.
“It doesn’t matter how long and how much time has gone by. If we’re wrong, we’re wrong,” she said.
