GLASTONBURY, CONNECTICUT · FAMILY LAW + FAMILY-VIOLENCE DEFENSE
Most states cannot order a divorced parent to pay for college. Connecticut can. The statute is C.G.S. §46b-56c, and it contains a requirement that costs families real money every year — not because it is complicated, but because it has to be handled at the end of the divorce, years before anyone is thinking about tuition.
The divorce judgment must either enter an educational support order or expressly reserve the right to seek one later.
If the judgment does neither, the ability to come back for one is generally gone. Not reduced, not harder — gone. It does not matter how circumstances changed, how reasonable the request is, or that the child is an excellent student who now needs help. The court is required to tell the parents this at the time the decree enters, but that warning arrives on the day people are least able to absorb new information.
This is a drafting question, not a deadline tied to a birthday. A single reserved paragraph in the judgment preserves the right. Nothing else does.
If you are divorcing now and your children are young, this is the cheapest thing you will ever do for them.
Before entering an order, the court must find that it is more likely than not that the parents would have provided support for higher education if the family had remained intact. That is a factual question about this family — what the parents’ own education was, what they said and did about college before the separation, what they could afford.
The court then weighs the parents’ income and assets, the child’s need and academic aptitude, the availability of financial aid, and the reasonableness of the school chosen.
The order is not unconditional. The child must enroll at an accredited institution or private career school, carry at least half of a full-time course load, maintain good academic standing under that school’s own rules, and make academic records available to both parents.
Two things people assume that are not in the statute: there is no C-average requirement, and there is no full-time enrollment requirement. Half-time and good standing is the test.
If the child fails to comply in a given academic period, the order is suspended for that period.
Then the question becomes timing and amount, which is its own negotiation — usually as the child approaches senior year of high school and actual costs come into view.
It is worth having someone read the decree before concluding nothing can be done. Reservation language is sometimes present in forms people did not realize they had.
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Connecticut’s child support guidelines changed August 1, 2026. How the income shares model works, what the new schedule covers, and when courts deviate.
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How Connecticut child support is calculated under the 2026 guidelines, what counts as income, and who pays for college. Glastonbury attorney Daniel M. Morton.
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