Often, parents whose children are at university, college, or in another type of post-secondary education still have to pay child support. The institution the children attend could be a university, college, technical college, or any other accredited post-secondary school that offers a degree, diploma, or certificate.
If a child's still living with their parents, child support under the federal Child Support Guidelines usually continues to be paid to the parent the child lives with for most of the time or, in shared parenting situations, to the parent who earns less. If your child's living away from home for their post-secondary education, whether or not you need to support them and how much support will be required will depend on:
- the age of your child
- whether your child's educational goals are realistic (that is, is your child likely to get a job soon after graduation?)
- whether your child's studying full-time or part-time
- whether your child can help pay for their post-secondary education through student loans or other financial help
- whether your child can work part-time to help pay for their own support
- your child's past academic performance and how likely they are to be successful in their post-secondary education
- your own and the other parent's views about post-secondary education for your children that you talked about or agreed about when you were married or living together (you might have called it a common-law relationship)
