<p>^^And their parents don’t make nearly the amount that Americans usually make. As a percentage of income, tuition can be high.</p>
<p>The relevant law isn’t the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, but a different uniform law: the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act. It has been adopted by every state, because the federal government made its adoption a condition to continuing to receive some federal funds.</p>
<p>Generally, the court that issued the original order - which happened as part of the divorce proceedings - will have continuing exclusive jurisdiction. However, if none of the three relevant parties (the two parents and the child) resides in New Jersey at some point, one of them may petition another court to take jurisdiction. The court with jurisdiction applies its own state’s laws.</p>
<p>It’s kind of ironic in this case that the kid (as it’s been reported by the press, anyway, which may be wrong) could make sure she continues to get out-of-state tuition paid for - no matter where her parents move - by maintaining a New Jersey residence.</p>
<p>As an aside: if the kid were to sue the parents in Pennsylvania (and one of the three continued to live in New Jersey), the Pennsylvania court wouldn’t hear the case. The New Jersey courts have continuing exclusive jurisdiction. A Pennsylvania court would dismiss the complaint for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction (which it can do even if no party moves for that) and perhaps suggest that the kid (or his foolish lawyer) bring it in a New Jersey court.</p>
<p>@therearellamas: Interesting that the law depends on what the parents would have done if they had stayed married, which actually makes sense. In this case, then, it would seem the parents should not be required to pay.</p>
<p>I was wrong above as Rutgers tuition is now about $16k which is the amount the parents are required to pay. The cost of Temple is irrelevant as the law is only about paying the equivalent of Rutgers tuition. I don’t think the parents are required to pay room and board. </p>
<p>The moral of this story is that a family court judge will sock it to you if he or she thinks you are acting like a jerk. Most likely, the parents made a poor showing in front of the judge, and the daughter successfully portrayed herself as the innocent victim of their bad behavior. In cases like this, don’t focus too much on the specifics of the law. For this same reason, it won’t have that much precedential value. The same judge could deny the payments to a kid tomorrow if he thinks the kid is the jerk in the situation.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus,</p>
<p>In one country, in general, they do not have student loans available from the government to the students directly (so all loans need to be taken out by parents.) And their down payment for a house is like 50%, and the term for paying back the mortgage is less than 10 years. The deposit for renting a place to live is also much higher than it is here.</p>
<p>But the real burden is for the education expenses before the college. (somewhat like the expensive ECs that are required for the top few elite colleges here, except that it is all test-aspect of the academics over there.)</p>
<p>Their young students may go to a public secondary/primary school, but the majority of them go to $$$ private tutoring schools in the evening (could stay there till as late as 10 or 11 pm) for many years just not to be behind all others. This happens in almost all east Asia countries. Just take S. Korea (many other countries in that area are similar) as an example, it is said 70% of the household expenditures go to (private, after school) education. Their average debt-to-income level is higher than that of US families. It will likely take another generation to change this.</p>
<p><a href=“Drive for education drives South Korean families into the red - CSMonitor.com”>http://m.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2012/1110/Drive-for-education-drives-South-Korean-families-into-the-red</a></p>
<p>Hunt- I will add to your fine commentary another moral- which is that kids often get #$%^ during a divorce proceeding. A friend of mine functions as a guardian ad litem frequently and has horror stories about what affluent parents will do to their kids in an effort to get back at a spouse during a divorce. Not pretty.</p>