Listen to Our Children in Need: Special Needs Children and Divorce

Parents of a special needs child know that caring for their child involves an often overwhelming and demanding lifelong commitment that also introduces an added strain to the parents' own relationship. Divorced or never-married co-parents of a special needs child may face additional and substantial challenges, especially when their child requires lifelong care and support.

Many states in the U.S. have laws that obligate parents to provide financial support for their child only until the child reaches the age of 18 or 21 or until the child graduates from high school (for example, New York and Ohio), yet individuals with special needs often require financial support throughout their lives for expenses such as tutoring and private education, medical care and therapy, testing and assessments, vocational training, assisted living arrangements and supplemental income for basic living expenses when social security disability is not sufficient.

Other states have enacted legislation that permits courts to order continued support for individuals unable to live independently due to a mental or physical disability, like Florida, California and Illinois. However, until all states have adopted such laws, parents of special needs children will have to negotiate their own solutions without legislative backing or judicial recourse.

via Sherri Donovan, Esq.: Listen to Our Children in Need: Special Needs Children and Divorce.