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In Texas, one parent pays child support to the other.  It is based solely on the payor's income and is a straight percentage  25% for two chilren.  The income of the parent receiving child support is of absolutely no consequence to the amount of child support paid.

http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/docs/FA/content/htm/fa.005.00.000154.00.htm

Well, actually civil contempt IS a a crime and you most certainly can go to jail. You can even ask for a jury trial - at least this is the way my attorney explained it to me.  Also, you were given a 90 day sentence for contempt and left the country?

I think you're in for a world of hurt.  You need to straighten this out at soon as possible.

How are you eating without a job?  How are you supporting yourself?

From the IRS website

http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq-kw23.html

Can a court order determine who may claim a dependency exemption for a child? Does the court order supersede the IRS requirements?

Federal law determines who may claim a dependency exemption. Please refer to Publication 504, Divorced or Separated Individuals, for more information on the special rule for children of divorced or separated parents.

In other words, if the mother has custody (which the IRS defines as having the child live with her for more than half the year) she gets to claim the exemption UNLESS she fills out and gives the father form 8332.  By law, she is the one who gets it.

If you had a court order that said WITHOUT EXCEPTION that one parent or the other got the exemption, then you could attach that with your tax return too.

When parents are not married to each other, the parent who has custody more than 50% of the nights gets to take the exemption as long as the parents together (mother and father) provide more than 50% of the support.

Sounds like the mother gets it.

Are you talking to me or the original poster?  If you're talking to me, I gave up years ago answering philosophical questions and worrying about the principle of the thing.  It's a pointless and frustrating exercise.  I found that I was much happier removing the words "why" and "should"  and "fair" from my vocabulary.  Life deals people raw deals all the time.

This seems a really popular topic on this message board. Of course I'm not here much so maybe it just seems so to me.  Divorcenet has a pretty good explanation of this in each state.

http://www.divorcenet.com/states/washington/wa_art02

The general rule is that if there's nothing excluding it in the divorce decree, you go to the state statutes.  If there's nothing there, go to the state supreme court website and look for appeals or supreme court decisions for that state which constitutes case law.   Even if there is something in the state statutes you should always check case law.  I am not a lawyer and this is my opinion, but I have to look up law all the time for civil cases for my job as a scientist, and my sister is a divorce court judge, so I ask her about stuff like this for my case all the time.   Always, always, always talk to a lawyer about this for your case.  It looks to me from the citation above that Maryland statutes don't mention it (look for case law or amended statutes), New Jersey will allow it as a modification of the divorce decree (look for more recent state law or amended statutes), and Connecticut is vague (look for more recent state law or amended statutes).

Cornell Law School is a good source of statutes for all states, or used to be.  We have a law library at work so I haven't used it in a while.

The divorce decree doesn't say what happens if the child is handicapped.  So the court will uphold state law. And it will always side on what's best for the child, particularly one who is handicapped.

But ask an attorney.

You're asking the wrong question.  Almost every state relies on common law for support for handicapped children after the age of 18.  It has nothing to do with extending graduation but whether or not the child is competent to live apart from the custodial parent and earn enough money to live independently.  From what you've said, it sounds like the child will never accomplish this.

Ark. Code Ann. §9-12-312(a)(5)(B), "The court may also provide for the
continuation of support for an individual with a disability which affects the
ability of the individual to live independently from the custodial parent."

From:  http://www.ncsl.org/programs/cyf/adultsupport.htm

It makes absolutely no difference in my child support calculation.  I just ran the Oklahoma calculator vs the Texas one.  I come out with the same amount.