In Minnesota, child support obligations automatically terminate upon your minor child’s emancipation. If you have more than one minor child, then the child support obligation terminates upon your youngest minor child emancipating. You don’t have to go back to Court for child support to terminate.
A child is emancipated when the child attains the age of 18, or when they graduate from high school, whichever is later. Child support obligations could extend past the child’s 18th birthday if the child is still in high school; however, child support obligations do not extend past the age of 20. The child may also be emancipated if the child is emancipated, self-supporting, married, in the armed services, deceased, or until further order of the Court. Child support obligations could extend if a child has special needs to the extent that the adult child is incapable of self-support.
If you are not current in your child support obligations and you are in arrears, then your child support does not terminate even if your child is emancipated. Minnesota will continue to collect the past due amount.
Notably, if you have more than one minor child and one child emancipates, your child support obligation does not automatically modify; you continue to pay the same Court-ordered child support obligation as you did when all your children were minors. To modify child support, the proposed new child support calculation needs to differ (higher or lower) from the current child support obligation by at least $75.00 and have a 20% difference.
Contact Howard Family Law, LLC to further discuss whether your child support obligations, or receipt of child support, should be modified.
