Oregon State Statutes - Oregon Attorney Directory

(1) In addition to any other authority of the court, the court may enter an order against either parent, or both of them, to provide for the support or maintenance of a child attending school:

(a) After the commencement of a suit for annulment or dissolution of a marriage or for separation from bed and board and before the judgment therein;

(b) In a judgment of annulment or dissolution of a marriage or of separation from bed and board; and

(c) During the pendency of an appeal taken from all or part of a judgment rendered in pursuance of ORS 107.005 to 107.086, 107.093 to 107.174, 107.405, 107.425, 107.445 to 107.520, 107.540, 107.610 or this section.

(2) An order providing for temporary support under subsection (1)(c) of this section may be modified at any time by the court making the judgment appealed from, shall provide that the support money be paid in monthly installments, and shall further provide that it is to be in effect only during the pendency of the appeal. No appeal lies from any such temporary order.

(3) If the court provides for the support and maintenance of a child attending school under this section, the child is a party for purposes of matters related to that provision.

(4) When the court orders support under this section or the administrator or an administrative law judge orders support for a child attending school under ORS 416.400 to 416.470, the court, administrator or administrative law judge shall order that the support be distributed to the child unless good cause is found for the distribution of the payment to be made in some other manner. When there are multiple children for whom support is ordered, the amount paid directly to a child under this subsection is a prorated share based on the number of children for whom support is ordered unless otherwise ordered by the court, administrator or administrative law judge. 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.

(5) A child for whom support has been ordered under this section:

(a) Must maintain the equivalent of a C average or better.

(b) Shall notify a parent paying support when the child ceases to be a child attending school.

(c) Shall submit to the department and the parent paying support, on a form developed by the department, all information necessary to establish eligibility to receive support under this section, including grades earned and the courses in which the child is enrolled. The child shall submit the information required by this paragraph within the first month of each term or semester.

(6) If the child fails to comply with any of the requirements imposed on the child by this section and upon written notice from the obligor, the distribution of the support directly to the child ceases and may not be reinstated unless the parent paying support elects to continue to pay the support, in spite of the child's failure to comply with the requirements of this section, and notifies the department of the election in writing. If the underlying support order is for the support of more than one child, the parent shall pay the amount previously paid directly to the child to the recipient of the rest of the support until such time as the support order is modified. A child's failure to comply with the requirements imposed by this section is a substantial change of circumstances for purposes of modification of a support order.

(7) Orders entered into prior to October 4, 1997, may be modified to include the provisions of subsections (4) to (6) of this section. However, the fact that an order entered, or agreement entered into, prior to October 4, 1997, does not contain any of the provisions of subsections (4) to (6) of this section does not constitute a substantial change of circumstances for purposes of modifying a child support order.

(8) As used in this section, "child attending school" means a child of the parties who is unmarried, is 18 years of age or older and under 21 years of age and is a student regularly attending school, community college, college or university, or regularly attending a course of professional or technical training designed to fit the child for gainful employment. A child enrolled in an educational course load of less than one-half that determined by the educational facility to constitute "full-time" enrollment is not a "child attending school."

[1973 c.827 §12b; 1981 c.669 §1; 1989 c.518 §1; 1995 c.343 §21; 1997 c.704 §51; 2003 c.73 §50a; 2003 c.75 §84; 2003 c.576 §110]

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