Today, raising children is especially expensive due to rising educational and healthcare costs. That said, financially supporting a child following a divorce or separation can be difficult, going from two incomes to a single income. As such, New York requires both parents to provide for their children until emancipation. Child covers cover a child’s basic needs to ensure their best interests. Many parents wonder what exactly they can use these funds for. Please continue reading to learn whether child support can be used to pay for school lunches and how you can benefit from connecting with a skilled Nassau County Child Support Lawyer.
What Expenses Does New York Child Support Cover?
Child support is typically ordered by the court to ensure that both parents contribute to the financial well-being of their children after a divorce or separation. In New York, this type of financial support can be used to cover the following expenses:
- Basic necessities: Children need food, proper clothing, and safe and comfortable living quarters. As such, child support covers the child’s basic needs, such as food, clothing, and shelter. This includes purchasing groceries and clothing expenses. Additionally, child support can be used to cover costs associated with the child’s shelter needs, such as mortgage, rent, telephone, internet, and utility bills.
- Medical care is essential to understand that most divorced or separated parents must carry some form of health insurance for their children. Generally, those with better employee-covered benefits are responsible for carrying their kids’ medical, dental, and vision insurance plans.
- Education fees: If your child attends the public school system, that doesn’t mean education is free, regardless of whether your child attends private or public school, the child is supposed to cover school uniforms, tuition fees, textbooks, private tutors, and lunch money.
- Childcare: When one or both parents work, they may require outside help to care for their children were woChild; child support can be used to cover the costs of childcare expenses, such as daycare services, babysitters, tannins, after-school programs, and summer camps.
- Transportation: Child support payments can be adjusted for basic transportation costs. These include the cost of maintaining a vehicle, such as gas, car payments, and insurance. They can also cover the cost of riding a bus or other travel costs.
- Entertainment: Most courts hold that a child should benefit from basic entertainment. This includes access to the internet and television programs and visiting movie theatres, amusement parks, camping trips, etc.
- Extracurricular activities: Many children partake in activities outside of regular school hours. Child support can cover after-school programs, summer camps, activities, clubs, and other recreational activities.
As you can see, these funds can be used to cover school-related costs, including school lunches. If you’re facing an issue with child support, please don’t hesitate to contact the Law Offices of Eyal Talassazan, P.C. Our legal team is prepared to represent your interests effectively.