Messages

FACT:
A child may not be removed permanently from the state of Illinois without a court order. The custodial parent must file a removal petition.

QUESTIONS:
When and how does the Non-custodial parent get notified of this?

When and how is the Non-custodial parent given an opportunity to contest the removal of the Child?

DETAILS:
Divorced 4 years. Mother has Custody. 1 minor Child 16yrs old

Mother is moving to another state. Child wants to live with Father and remain in the area due to Family (all immediate and extended family of both parents live in Father's home area), Church, School, ect.

Mother informed Father verbally in person she is moving out of state. Mother and Father began negotiating/talking about Child living with Father for @ 4 weeks when Mother stopped communicating and said she will not allow Child to stay with Father.

State: Illinois
County: Clark

My oldest is going to turn 18 on Jan. 30th 2005. She will graduate high school at the end of the school year.

Since the time of the divorce (OCT. 2003) I have been paying child support directly to the BM by personal check. Each check is noted "Child Support week ending xx/xx/xxxx" I scan a copy of the pay stub with the support check and keep record of it on my computer. I print a copy of the check and stub together and enclose it with the support check sent to BM.

My divorce papers are very "general" and state that 32% is to be taken from my pay for support. It does NOT state anywhere when child support ends.

Questions:

1. When does child support end in Illinois?
2. Is there an 18 or end of high school rule?

Thank you,
Mark

This is for those in Illinois looking for help:

http://www.illinoislawhelp.org/index.cfm

http://www.illinoislegalaid.org/

http://www.illinoisprobono.org/

http://www.law.siu.edu/selfhelp/



Mark & Heather

Hello,

ILLINOIS RESIDENCE

I am the SM. My husband, the BF is the NCP. He has 3 girls from a previous marriage, ages 17(soon to be 18), 15(soon to be 16), and 13. They currently live with the BM. The BM lives 30 min away from us. All of the BF and BM's family live in the same town as us. The middle and youngest,  have expressed to us for some time that they want to live with us. The oldest is not an issue in this case. We would be happy to have and want custody.

The BM is classic PAS to the fullest extreme and then some. The girls are aware of it and are angry about it. The BM is verbally and emotionally abusive. The BM has told the girls "there is no way in hell I will let your father have you." The girls are scared of their BM and what will happen to them if they ask to live with BF. Also, they are scared of what BM will do to them if they would have to live with her during a custody trial.

Recently the middle daughter, on her own,  got up the courage to ask to live with BF and the BM's response to this was very bad. BM told the daughter that there was no way she would let that happen. Then told her that she will decide when she will get to be allowed to see her father again. (Disregarding BF's visitation rights) She threatened to talk to the daughter's friends and parents so they would be aware of "what was going on" and then accused the same people of putting the ideas into her head. To top it all off she is forcing the girls to tell her at least once a day that they want to stay with her.

Other Examples of problems with BM:
1. BM tries to guilt and bribe girls to not want to see their BF.
2. Tries to get them to call him vulgar names when they are on the phone with her during the visitation she is constantly interrupting.
3. BM remarried to man with 3 boys, aprox. ages to the girls. When the guys moved in, they were forced to give up their bedrooms and move into the unfinished basement and sleep on air mattresses.
4. One daughter is made to share a bed with her step-brother.
5. BM has joked that she has sex in their bed when they are not home.
6. One daughter took BM's prescription meds to try to get high and it resulted in an overdose. The prescription was one that the BM had no longer been taking for a long time but was keeping in the house.
7. Girls have witnessed physical violence between SF and his sons, they were also told SF carries a loaded gun at all times (illegal in IL) and claim to have seen the gun.
8. When BM asked about their feelings at the time of the divorce the girls responded "happy" and were punished.

It only gets worse from there and the girls are constantly fighting with and fighting off BM. This behavior from her is not new and has always been present.
 
The girls have gotten to the point that the have told us they will run away. Or when they come to see BF they will refuse to leave. They have said "Go ahead, let Mom call the cops, she can't make us come home."

QUESTION:
We were told that if the girls ever refuse to go home we should call the police. At that time, CPS could possibly be called in to investigate and grant BF temporary custody. Also that CPS would act on behalf of the girls in court to change custody.

IS THAT TRUE?

Does anybody know the laws in Illinois? If so, we are trying to get an idea of how this will play out. Any information about what will happen?
We want to protect the girls and do what is best for them.

Any information and comments are welcome.
Thank you,
IL Step Mom

Illinois has a standard minimal table they go by:

750 ICLS 5/505(a)1)
Child support is determined by Illinois statutes. Those laws use a percentage of the paying spouse's net income, after certain specified deductions, as the basis for the child support calculation:

# of children  Percentage of income
1 20%
2 28%
3 32%
4 40%
5 45%
6 or more 50%

Backround boyfriend/fiancé:

The relationship between 17yr old and boyfriend/fiancé is a serious one. They are going to get married. We were skeptical at first, but have come to know him very well and give them our blessings.

Boyfriend/fiancé is about a year older and has graduated high school. He is a very HARD worker with a good work ethic.

Yes he has a job. And it's a VERY GOOD one too. Right now he makes more than me with his starting wage. :O

Yes he is helping to support his family. (17yr old and baby.)

NO THEY DO NOT PAY RENT.

The point of having them come to live with us:
They both wanted to get out of BM's house. She was driving them nuts. Plus BM lives in a town @ 30 away. All family, BM's and DH's is in our town.
They are wanting to get out on their own VERY badly. Enough so that they were willing to just jump right into it all. We talked with them a lot about coming to stay with us and save money for at least a couple monthes before jumping into a situation with rent, utilities, ect. We know we can't make desisions for them... but we can teach them about making good ones.


 

UPDATE:

Looks like BM (so far is not looking for support for 19yr old.) But she wants to ignore the fact that DH has 17yr old, boyfriend/fiancé and baby living with us and wants the FULL 20% for the 15yr old.

She goes on and on about how she's been supporting the 17yr old, boyfriend/fiancé and baby and how they all cost so much to take care of. She wants to twist it all around and say poor me, look at all the hard ship... so I should get the full 20%.

UMM...
First off, the 17yr old got preg. durring her weekend visitation because she let her do whatever she wanted while she was grounded and suppose to be on 100% Adult supervision 24hrs a day.

Second, It was all her big plan to stop the custody change and make 17yr old move back in with her... then have the boyfriend/fiancé move in, giving her the entire basement to play house in. (Kitchen, bath, 2 berooms, & living room)

Third, the was born begining of May. They came to live here begining of June... WOW a whole month. Plus 17yr old is on the WIC program. (women, infants and children) They provide free food for the mother and formula and stuff for the baby.

Sorry that kind of became a little bit of me ventting... :)
It's just hard to deal with all the kids coming to us (on thier own) saying "We don't see any of the child support." And then to go on about how she is driving a new car, buying lots of diamond jewelry, maxing out credit cards, ect... and then say "Oh yea, but mom constantly complains how broke we are." She recently lied about having a tummy tuck and lipo by saying she was going in for massive heart surery. (we all know the truth, but she still thinks everyone believes her) The kids sometimes will joke saying she is using the CS to pay off her tuck/lipo.

It's always something...

Husband and BM split all college costs 50/50 after grants & funding, ect.
But he is also paying for 50% of her car insurence and last year durring school gave her @ $300 on a debit card for other expenses. Her pays for or gives her money for all kinds of things he dosen't "LEGALLY" have to. He dosen't want her to go with out or have it be a strain that she starts to do poorly in school. She was holding down a full time class schedule with 3 part time jobs, plus school activities. BM was pushing for her to get another job cause she b*tches about how she pays for 19yr olds cell phone.

***The 17 yr old. Is she in school?
Yes she is in school. This is her senior year.

***...records of her dropping out, then CS has to drop her.
He doesn't go trough the CS offices / the courts. (See original post under NOTE:)
It was writen into the divorce that they could work out CS arrangments together.

***And since BM could not help well then by courts eyes we do not have to either, and we don't.
Husband and BM split all college costs 50/50 after grants & funding, ect.
But he is also paying for 50% of her car insurence and last year durring school gave her @ $300 on a debit card for other expenses. Her pays for or gives her money for all kinds of things he dosen't "LEGALLY" have to. He dosen't want her to go with out or have it be a strain that she starts to do poorly in school. She was holding down a full time class schedule with 3 part time jobs, plus school activities. BM was pushing for her to get another job cause she b*tches about how she pays for 19yr olds cell phone.

Topic: Child Support

State: Illinois

Background:
Divorced 2003
BM has sole custody.
Husband has 2 minor children he still pays child support on. One is 17 and one is 15. The 17 yr old moved in with us last year (June – Oct) after getting into trouble (grades, drugs, boys) bad enough for BM to loosen the PAS death grip she has on her.

(Note:
Judge in DH and BM's divorce said they could work out child support payment if they can get along. The first CS went through the court and BM didn't like waiting so long to get it and for going on 3 years now, DH mails a check to her weekly with a photo copy of the check and his pay stub together.)

He had a lawyer doing all the paper work. The arrangement they agreed on was going to be that DH would get custody of 17 yr old and BM would retain custody of 15 yr old. That would mean child support cancels each other out. On top of that they would split 50/50 the cost of school clothes, the car insurance for the 19 yr old in college, all kinds of other extras - just to be able to get the 17 yr old to live with us so we could help her.
A couple $ grand later, and one signature from the judge away from being finalized, we found out that while she was at one of BM's weekend visitations, BM let her run free and she got pregnant. (she was suppose to be on 24 hr adult supervision.) At that point BM said the deal was off and pulled out the big guns on the kid and made her move back to BM's, along with the father of the child (boyfriend/fiancé).

Current situation:
The 17yr old gave birth about a month ago and has now moved in with us as of the 2nd week of June, with the boyfriend/fiancé and baby also.

We know that this is going to be another fight over money. Currently she believes that she should continue collecting child support for 17yr old while she lives with us.

She may or may not ask for support for 19yr old full time college student while she is home for summer.

What can be done? Figure out the child support from DH to BM and BM to DH and the difference will be paid to the parent with the lower income. He is just tired of being screwed by her all the time... paying support and then having to financially support the kids anyway because she claims to them that she is broke and they have to go without "basic life needs" things unless DH will buy it for them.

1. What are his options?

2. What are the different ways child support can be divided in this situation?

Thank you
Step Mom