A Not Too Early Look At Expenses For Summer Camp

February 11, 2021 • By Inna Materese

It’s only February but the school year will soon begin to wind down and thoughts of summer camps, even in a COVID-environment, may soon creep into view along with questions about payment arrangements for co-parents. 

In addition to determining basic support, the court can also allocate additional support expenses and include them as part of your support order.  Examples of those additional expenses are childcare costs, health insurance premiums, unreimbursed medical expenses, summer camp expenses, private school expenses, and after-school activities. 

With these expenses, remember to provide your attorney with written documentation of the actual costs and proof of payment. The court wants to see documentation of the actual expenses before they are going to order your co-parent to contribute. This will also help to show that the proposed cost is reasonable given you and your co-parent's incomes.

Summer Camp Expenses

The court will allocate summer camp expenses if there is a need for the expense and the expense is reasonable given the circumstances, both financial and otherwise. Generally, the division of the cost will be proportional to the parties’ respective incomes.  

There are a few ways to share this expense. If the total expense for camp is already known, then it can be included in the support order as part of the monthly support obligation. Or, the court can order the payor to pay his/her portion of the expense directly to the camp or the other parent when the expense is incurred.  

Although a camp expense is generally only incurred in the summer, the court will generally divide the total amount over a twelve-month period so that the monthly support order remains consistent.  What if the expense is not included in the monthly support order? Then, the party incurring the expense must provide documentation of the actual expense and request reimbursement from the other parent.  

What if you and your co-parent disagree about summer camp? 

Generally, the biggest issue about camp is the cost. For example, one parent may want to send a child to an expensive sleep away camp, while the other parent may prefer (and only be willing to pay for) the local YMCA day camp. You may be asking what happens in this scenario.

This is both a legal custody and a child support issue. If you and your co-parent disagree on which camp to send your children to for reasons other than the cost, then you will have to resolve this dispute in custody court. In general, the court will look at whether the objection against the camp is reasonable. If not, then the request for permission for the children to attend the requested camp will likely be granted. 

If the issue is cost only, then the court will look at whether the expense is appropriate given your finances. For example, is the cost of the overnight camp almost half of what you and your co-parent collectively earn in a year? If so, the court is not going to order that you share in that expense. In the alternative, if you have the resources and have sent your children to the same overnight camp for many years, the court is likely going to find the cost reasonable and order it to be shared.