Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 107 § 107.108 — Support or maintenance for child attending school; rules

Support or maintenance for child attending school; rules. (1) As used in this section: (a) “Child attending school” means a child of the parties who: (A) Is unmarried; (B) Is 18 years of age or older and under 21 years of age; (C) Is making satisfactory academic progress as defined by the school that the child attends; and (D) Has a course load that is no less than one-half of the load that is determined by the school to constitute full-time enrollment. (b) “Regularly scheduled break” means: (A) A summer semester or term; (B) A period of time not exceeding four months between graduation from or completion of school and the beginning of the next regularly scheduled term, semester or course of study at school; (C) A period of time between the end and beginning of regularly scheduled consecutive school semesters, terms or courses of study; or (D) Any other scheduled break between courses of study that is defined by the school as a regularly scheduled break. (c) “School” means: (A) An educational facility such as a high school, community college, four-year college or university; (B) A course of professional, vocational or technical training, including the Job Corps, designed to fit the child for gainful employment; or (C) A high school equivalency course, including but not limited to a General Educational Development (GED) program, an educational program for grade 12 or below and home schooling. (2) A support order entered or modified under this chapter or ORS chapter 25, 108, 109, 110, 125, 419B or 419C may require either parent, or both of them, to provide for the support or maintenance of a child attending school. (3) Notwithstanding ORS 25.503, a child attending school is a party to any legal proceeding related to the support order. A child attending school may: (a) Apply for child support services under ORS 25.080: (A) If a support order provides for the support or maintenance of the child attending school; or (B) In accordance with rules adopted by the Department of Justice; (b) Request a judicial or administrative modification of the child support amount or may receive notice of and participate in any modification proceeding; and (c) Agree, in the manner provided under ORS 25.020 (12), that payments not made to the Department of Justice should be credited for amounts that would have been paid to the child attending school if the payments had been made to the department. (4) Regardless of whether the child is a child attending school, an unmarried child who is 18 years of age or older and under 21 years of age: (a) Is a necessary party to a judicial proceeding under ORS 107.085, 107.135, 107.431, 108.110, 109.103 or 109.158 in which the child’s parents are parties and the court has authority to order or modify support for a child attending school; and (b) May request notice of any proceeding initiated by the administrator to modify a support order that may affect the child’s rights as a child attending school. To receive notice, the child shall provide an address to the administrator, and the administrator shall notify the child of any modification proceeding by regular first class mail or, if authorized by the child, by electronic mail or other electronic delivery method as described by the administrator by rule. To be a party to a proceeding, the child must send a written request to the administrator within 30 days after the date of the notice of the proceeding. (5)(a) If a support order provides for the support or maintenance of a child attending school and the child qualifies as a child attending school, unless good cause is found for the distribution of the payment to be made in some other manner, support shall be distributed to the child if services are being provided under ORS 25.080 or shall be paid directly to the child if those services are not being provided. (b) Unless otherwise ordered by the court, administrator or administrative law judge, when there are multiple children for whom support is ordered, the amount distributed or paid directly to a child attending school is a prorated share based on the number of children for whom support is ordered. However, if, due to a parenting time or split custody arrangement, support was not paid to the parent having primary physical custody of the child before the child turned 18 years of age, support may not be distributed or paid directly to the child attending school unless the support order is modified. (c) The Department of Justice shall adopt rules to define good cause and circumstances under which the administrator or administrative law judge may allocate support by other than a prorated share and to determine how support is to be allocated in those circumstances. (6)(a) For support payments to continue to be distributed or paid directly to the child attending school, the child shall provide to each parent ordered to pay support and, if child support services are being provide