Divorce in Maryland Private School and Child Support

Maryland child support is based upon mandatory guidelines. factors that are considered in determining the amount of child support, include but are not limited to, cost incurred in private school education. Whether this cost should or should not be considered in the child support calculation depends upon the parties agreement or if the parties can not agree, then the court's order. As such the court looks at a number of factors to determine if the private school tuition should be made a part of the child support calculations. The factors can be found in the case of Witt v. Ristaino, 118 Md.App. 155, 701 A.2d 1227 (1997). These factors include (1) “the child's educational history,” (2) “the child's performance while in the private school,” (3) “ family history,” (4) “whether the parents had made the choice to send the child to the school prior to their divorce,” (5) “any particular factor that may exist in a specific case that might impact upon the child's best interests,” and (6) “the parent's ability to pay for the schooling.”