State Children's Division hearing officers tell Missouri lawmakers that about half their divorce case hearings involve child support payments for college students.
And they hope a proposed law will cut that volume in half, state Rep. Lyle Rowland told the Senate's Education Committee Wednesday.
Rowland, R-Cedarcreek, was explaining his bill to the Senate panel two weeks after it passed the House on a 117-30 vote.
Under current law, when child-support payments are ordered in a divorce case, that parent paying the support is required to pay only until the child's 18th birthday or completion of high school - unless the child enrolls "in an institution of vocational or higher education not later than October first following graduation from a secondary school or completion of a graduation equivalence degree program."
In that case, the child-support is to continue until the child reaches 21, or graduates from the post-secondary school - as long as he or she "completes at least twelve hours of credit" and gets passing grades in more than half the classes.
But, Rowland testified, support-paying parents often challenge continued payments if their child isn't doing well.
"People will read that they only have to pass six hours," he explained, "then they want a hearing because their child has failed one class or two classes, and the non-custodial parent was wanting to stop their support for paying for their education."
So his bill would change the current law so the student is required to enroll "for at least twelve hours of credit" and complete "at least twelve hours of credit with passing grades" each semester.
"The reason I put this in was just to clarify that language," Rowland said, "and, hopefully, there won't be confusion with the custodial and non-custodial parent on it."
The current law also says child-support payments "may be terminated and shall not be eligible for reinstatement" for a student failing more than half their college or vocational school classes.
Rowland's bill would change that "may" to a "shall."
"We're not changing what the department has been doing all along," Rowland said. "It's just that, hopefully, this will stop so many hearings from being had."
The committee took no action on the bill Wednesday.
After today's sessions, lawmakers have only three weeks left in this year's General Assembly.