Child Support continuation - post-secondary

I

informedmom

New member
Hello everyone,

I am hoping for some advice on how to proceed.

Our son, aged 21, is a full-time university student in Ontario. He didn't make it into the coop program out of highschool so decided to do an internship, under the support of a student advisor, during the January - May 2024 semester. The unpaid internship was arranged by my son in order to get some additional experience in his field. I provided him with a car and he paid for his gas and the upkeep of the car during this time. It was recommended that he enrol in and Indendent study course, which he did, and completed assignments and received credit for his internship. He is enrolled full-time for September to complete his last year and a half of university.

Question: my son's father, the support payor, does not feel he has to contribute his proportional share of our two-thirds for this time period since our son was not enrolled full-time. He is also refusing to pay child support because he wasn't enrolled full time. Is he correct or is he obligated to continue support?
 
informedmom said:
Hello everyone,

I am hoping for some advice on how to proceed.

Our son, aged 21, is a full-time university student in Ontario. He didn't make it into the coop program out of highschool so decided to do an internship, under the support of a student advisor, during the January - May 2024 semester. The unpaid internship was arranged by my son in order to get some additional experience in his field. I provided him with a car and he paid for his gas and the upkeep of the car during this time. It was recommended that he enrol in and Indendent study course, which he did, and completed assignments and received credit for his internship. He is enrolled full-time for September to complete his last year and a half of university.

Question: my son's father, the support payor, does not feel he has to contribute his proportional share of our two-thirds for this time period since our son was not enrolled full-time. He is also refusing to pay child support because he wasn't enrolled full time. Is he correct or is he obligated to continue support?
Click to expand...

Were there school costs for the internship? If yes then he is required to pay his share. If the internship is directly related to his upcoming program of study then it is still considered relevant and a legit cost.

He is also required to pay for child support for the months kid was in school. Meaning, if kid turned 18 before September 2023 then cs stops from Sept to January and restarts while kid is in the internship.
 
Thank you!
The school costs were the tuition for the one course, ancillery fees, and the cost of maintaining his student housing, which he lived in and commuted from. However, the internship was not coordinated by the school or a requirement of his graduation, other than his degree program requires over 2000 hours of relevant work experience in order to graduate. My son arranged it all as a way to get additional work experience in his field.
 
informedmom said:
Thank you!
The school costs were the tuition for the one course, ancillery fees, and the cost of maintaining his student housing, which he lived in and commuted from. However, the internship was not coordinated by the school or a requirement of his graduation, other than his degree program requires over 2000 hours of relevant work experience in order to graduate. My son arranged it all as a way to get additional work experience in his field.
Click to expand...

The job description and field may play a factor. If the child took an unpaid internship when there was paid work in the field available.

People can make an argument over just about anything and sometimes they get lucky in court or are simply right.
Most people don't like being wrong when it comes to their exes so they put on their thinking cap in an attempt to put holes in someone's argument.

What was the field? What geographical area?
 
The internship was in his field of study and a half hour drive from where he lives at school. Honestly, I supported the idea thinking it was a good thing for him to get work experience in his field but we researched it and the unpaid internship seemed the best option to maintain his student status.
 
Well, it is a toss up whether it is acceptable or not. Keeping his student status for cs purposes is not a good argument but if the courses apply to his schooling this year and help his employability following school it can be seen as legit.

If he lived away from home then cs is not paid. A portion of his living expenses would be paid instead and if he was a full time student between January and April and then September to December then summer support is owed.

Is your ex over 50% parenting time and does he make more than $150,000? Did your son receive any grants or subsidies?
 
@Rocksan or others ... is there a full summary written up for post secondary with case law? I thought @rocksan wrote a primer at some point?
 
There is a sticky in the financial thread that says something like post secondary 1/3 1/3 1/3.

Oddly enough, today is the anniversary of when my husband’s case settled.
 
I’m going to slow this thread down a bit, because a lot of correct pieces are being mentioned, but they’re getting mixed together in a way that risks misleading the OP.

First, some framing that matters:

Once a child is over 18, support is no longer presumptive. It becomes conditional and fact-driven. Courts are not funding “good intentions,” “career building,” or “student status.” They are assessing whether the adult child was unable to withdraw from parental charge during the period in question.

That’s the test. Everything else is evidence for or against it.

Responding to what’s been said so far​

“If there were school costs, then he is required to pay his share.”
Click to expand...

Not quite.
The existence of some school costs does not automatically trigger an obligation. The court looks at:
  • whether the child was reasonably pursuing education full-time or equivalently, and
  • whether the chosen pathway was necessary and reasonable, given available alternatives.
Tuition and ancillary fees help the argument — they don’t decide it.

“If the internship relates to the upcoming program, it’s legit.”
Click to expand...

Sometimes. Not always.

An unpaid, self-arranged, non-mandatory internship taken during a semester when the child is not enrolled full-time is exactly the type of scenario courts scrutinize more closely — especially if paid work in the field may have existed.

Relevance alone is not enough. Courts ask why this option and why unpaid.

“Keeping student status for CS purposes isn’t a good argument.”
Click to expand...

This is one of the more accurate statements in the thread.

Courts do not fund status preservation. If the motivation for the structure was primarily to keep the child within a “student” label, that weakens — not strengthens — the claim.

“If he lived away from home, CS is not paid.”
Click to expand...

This is often true in practice, but it’s not a rule — it’s an outcome.

When an adult child lives away from home, courts frequently:
  • suspend table child support, and
  • replace it with proportional sharing of legitimate post-secondary expenses.
But that only happens if the underlying educational pursuit itself passes the reasonableness test.

Where the payor’s position has merit​

The father’s position here is not frivolous.

During January–May:
  • the child was not enrolled full-time,
  • the internship was unpaid,
  • it was not coordinated by the school,
  • it was not strictly required at that stage,
  • and paid alternatives may have existed.
Those facts justify questioning whether the child was, during that window, unable to withdraw from parental charge.

A court would not simply wave that away.

Where the recipient’s argument has traction​

At the same time:
  • there was tuition,
  • there was academic credit,
  • the work aligns with the degree,
  • and the degree requires substantial experiential hours overall.
Those facts matter — especially if the internship materially advanced timely completion of the program and employability.

This is not an obviously losing position either.

The core issue no one should ignore​

What this really comes down to is reasonableness, not labels.

A judge would ask:
  1. Was this unpaid internship reasonably necessary at that time?
  2. Were paid alternatives realistically available?
  3. Did the child contribute to their own support?
  4. Was this choice proportionate to both parents’ means?
  5. Was this a temporary educational bridge, or a strategic pause dressed as schooling?
Depending on the evidence, the answer could go either way.

Anyone saying “he absolutely must pay” or “he absolutely doesn’t owe anything” is overstating their case.

Practical takeaway for the OP​

This is not something to resolve based on forum heuristics like “1/3-1/3-1/3” or blanket assumptions about internships.

If this escalates, it will turn on:
  • documentation,
  • availability of paid work,
  • academic requirements,
  • and the child’s actual dependency during that period.
That’s where you should focus — not on whether the decision felt reasonable at the time.

That’s the analysis a court would actually apply.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top