As single parents battle daily over financially supporting their children, lawmakers debated Monday over whether Connecticut should boost the age of child support to 21 years old.
Currently, financial support ends when the child turns 18, in contrast to age 21 in New York and as high as 23 years old in Massachusetts if the student is still in college.
Seymour school board member Kristen M. Harmeling testified for the bill Monday by saying that the paperwork when she got divorced in 2017 stated that child support would last “until the last child turned 18 years old.”
At the time, Harmeling had 14-year-old twins and an 11-year-old. She interpreted the language, at face value, to mean that the support would remain for all three children until the youngest child turned 18. But the reality was that the support ends for each individual child at 18, meaning that her two older children had aged out and were no longer eligible for child support.
“It caught me by surprise,” Harmeling told the legislature’s judiciary committee during a public hearing Monday. “There’s an undue burden being placed on custodial parents. Child support does not increase with the cost of living. So what you are assigned is what you get. Then your children age out, and you are left as a custodial parent to raise these children that both parents love. But I’m just not sure why the burden is placed on one parent to continue providing support and not the other.”
Harmeling, whose two older sons had graduated college by the time she was divorced, added, “Especially in a state like Connecticut, one of the most expensive in the nation, where extremely few of our 18- to 21-year-olds are financially independent and living on their own, this really feels like a commonsense bill.”
But noting that the cases have various complexities, opponents pushed strongly to have the issue postponed and sent to a study committee. Some opponents say that the issues and nuances cannot be resolved quickly in a short legislative session that ends on May 8. The measure would require approval by the Democratic-controlled judiciary committee, as well as the full House of Representatives and state Senate.
Tahlisa Brougham of New Haven Legal Assistance and others said the study committee is the best move in order to resolve the complicated issues.
“We think a study or working group is needed,” Brougham told the committee.
Michelle Fica, a family attorney with Connecticut Legal Services, said the issue raises a host of questions.
“Will this law affect when children are legally emancipated?” Fica asked in written testimony. “What might the unintended consequence be on obtaining orders of post-majority educational support when there isn’t enough money to pay towards that and child support? Will this law lead obligor parents to seek visitation with their adult child over their objection? Might this law impact young adult immigration eligibility? What about eligibility for public benefits such as HUSKY or disability? Will adult children be denied benefits because an order of support exists even when that order is impossible to enforce or isn’t even paid to them?”
State Rep. Melissa Osborne, an attorney who handles family cases, agreed with Harmeling that the economic issues are key for students who turn 18 and beyond.
“Your children aren’t any less expensive in August than they were in July,” said Osborne, a co-sponsor of the 16-page bill.
Child support would no longer need to be paid, for example, to an 18-year-old who had gotten married or had entered the military.
State Rep. Nicole Klarides-Ditria, a Republican who serves as co-chair of the bipartisan Women’s Caucus, said in written testimony that the bill would have a major impact on families at a time of high expenses with a student in college.
“It is important that noncustodial parents continue to pay child support past the age of majority while their children are in college, so this financial support, which can be tremendous during the college years, does not fall only on the shoulders of one parent,” she said. “Expenses like food, clothes, and medical insurance continue during these formative college years when our kids are still partially under our umbrella and these expenses are compounded for parents by having to help pay for tuition, books, housing, and anything else that financial aid and student loans fall short of covering.”
Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com
