One of the most confounding dilemmas to face parents are the ongoing and oftentimes boundless struggles, obligations, and duties to provide for adult children with special needs, regardless of whether those obligations and duties are self-imposed, involuntary, moral, ethical, financial, caretaking and otherwise “supportive” in every sense of that word. “Going through a divorce can be one of the most difficult times in a person’s life. This difficulty is often greatly increased when the parties have children together. Further challenges arise where one or more of the parties’ children have special needs.” Navigating the Divorce Process When You Have a Child With Special Needs, The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (2015). While there are a myriad of complex issues that divorce lawyers face on a daily basis in their law practices, few provide the kind of heart wrenching decisions facing their clients than recognizing and dealing with the conundrums of providing for the care and support of developmentally disabled children as those children approach and enter adulthood, if they are not adults already from a chronological perspective at the time of the divorce.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul recently signed into law legislation that had been sitting on the desk of her predecessor at the time that Governor Hochul assumed office, which amends both the Domestic Relation Law (DRL) and the Family Court Act (FCA) by making the parents of adult children with “certain” developmental disabilities chargeable for the support of those children until the age of 26. See DRL §240-d and FCA §413-b. The legislative memorandum providing the “justification” for this change in our law, reads as follows:
The “age of majority” is the legal age established by state law which defines that an individual is no longer a minor, and as a young adult, is granted the right and responsibility to make certain legal choices that adults make. In some states, you are considered an adult at the age of 18 or upon high school graduation, in others it is extended until the age of 21.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, an exception to the rule that parents’ duty to support their children ends at the children’s majority occurs when the child has mental or physical disabilities and cannot support his/herself. Oftentimes courts define “disability” in economic terms, meaning the inability of the disabled adult to adequately care for themselves through their own means.
Currently 40 states have provisions allowing custodial parents to pursue child support after the age of 21 for their adult children with disabilities. Our neighboring states New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island all passed such legislation. States differ as to whether support for a disabled adult is determined by the state’s child support guidelines or by the needs of the adult as balanced by the parents[’] ability to provide support.
Families with dependent, adult-children with developmental disabilities, face numerous challenges in providing necessary support for their loved ones. These challenges can at times become overwhelming, especially when they are being faced by a single parent trying to provide the best life they can for their child. It is the responsibility of both parents to assist in the expenses that occur while assisting an adult with developmental disabilities, and we must help-ensure these families achieve the lives they have always wanted for themselves and their child. This legislation aims to provide families with the assistance they need in order to offer the life their loved ones deserve.
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