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Published by the Indiana Office of Court Services

Allen v. Allen, No. 13S01-1601-DR-00053, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind., June 1, 2016).

June 6, 2016 Filed Under: Civil Tagged With: S. David, Supreme

David, J.
This case presents the question of whether a trial court may order that divorced parents be obligated to pay the graduate or professional school expenses of their adult children pursuant to the Indiana child support statutes. While the statutory provision at issue provides for payment of “postsecondary” educational expenses, the term postsecondary is undefined. Today we hold that the term “postsecondary,” as used in the provision permitting an award for postsecondary educational expenses, does not include graduate or professional school expenses.
….
“Postsecondary” is a term that is not defined in the statute, and as evidenced by the parties’ arguments, it can be interpreted in two different ways: as including graduate and professional school expenses or as not including graduate and professional school expenses. Thus, the statute is subject to judicial interpretation.
….
Furthermore, when looking at the child support statutes as a whole, it is not clear that the Legislature intended the term “postsecondary” to embrace any and all education after high school. Instead, recent amendments to the child support statutes reveal the Legislature’s intent to limit parental financial obligations after children reach the age of majority. For instance, effective July 1, 2012, the Legislature amended Indiana Code § 31-16-6-6, which lowered the presumptive age for termination of child support from 21 to 19 years old. Turner v. Turner, 983 N.E.2d 643, 646 (Ind. Ct. App. 2013).
….
We also 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.
Conclusion
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.
Rush, C.J., Rucker, and Massa, J.J., concur.
 

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