Parents' Support Obligations To Their Adult Children

The average parent is likely to assume that his legal obligations to his children terminate upon the child's attainment of majority. This was, in fact, the common law rule, and it is true in a few states today. However, most jurisdictions, through statute or court decision, have made parents responsible for the maintenance of their physically or mentally incapacitated adult children, and a number of states have authorized courts to order divorced parents to help defray their post-majority childrens' high school and/or college expenses. The purpose of this article is to examine and evaluate the states' support laws insofar as they impose an obligation on parents to provide financial assistance to their adult children.