Even with child support payments from the non-custodial parent, raising a special needs child on a single parent’s income can be very challenging. N.J.S.A. 2A:17-56.67, a relatively new New Jersey emancipation law, requires termination of child support at age 19 unless otherwise provided in a court order or a judgment. As a practical matter, this means that the parents of adult disabled children who have prior court orders mandating continued child support after age nineteen, must either submit a written request for the continuation of the child support obligation prior to the nineteenth birthday of the child in question, or, if the child’s nineteenth birthday has already passed, the custodial parent must petition the Probate Court, rather than the Family Court, for continued financial support of the adult disabled child, even though the support obligation is already provided for in the court order.

The new law, enacted in 2015, further provides that the obligation to pay child support must terminate by operation of law when the child (who may be a special needs child) reaches the age of twenty-three. The custodial parent of an adult special needs child then bears the burden of seeking a court order for financial maintenance or reimbursement, as authorized by law.

The custodial parent is frequently the economically disadvantaged parent and the new law and the proposed new court rule will likely disproportionately impact these families. Among other things, the custodial parent must learn to navigate an entirely different set of legal rules and will no longer have the enforcement mechanism of the Probation Department.

Recently, I worked together with other elder and family law attorneys to advocate for the disability community on these issues. The Elder and Disability Law Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association presented this letter to the New Jersey State Bar Association, with the goal of making the process of obtaining continued financial support for an adult disabled child after the age of 23 as easy and cost-effective a process as possible.

Questions? Let Jane know.

Jane Fearn-Zimmer is an Elder and Disability Law, Taxation, and Trusts and Estates attorney. She dedicates her practice to serving clients in the areas of elder and disability law, special needs planning, asset protection, tax and estate planning and estate administration. She also serves as Chair of the Elder & Disability Law section of the NJSBA.