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Child Support Fight Over Home Schooling and Catholic Beliefs Back In Appeals Court

By Howard M. Friedman

In McFarlane v. McFarlane, (OH Ct. App., Dec. 17, 2009), an Ohio appellate court was faced with two questions involving the relationship of parents' religious views to the award of child support. The parties' original divorce action also found its way to the state court of appeals three years ago. (MacFarlane I -prior posting).) (Also see prior related posting.) In that decision, the court affirmed award of child custody to the husband. A central issue in the disagreement between the parents was the wife's claim that her Catholic religious beliefs required that she home school her children. The trial court in awarding custody to the father, also ordered the children be enrolled in a traditional school, rather than home schooled. In the current phase of the case, the court below ordered the mother, whose income is only one-quarter that of the father's because she chose not to work full time, to pay child support to the father, in part because of the added expenses involved in sending children to a Catholic parochial school rather than public school. The Court of Appeals however, reversed on this issue, holding that "it seems unjust and inappropriate to require wife to pay for private schooling when enrolling the children in a traditional school, be it private or public, was clearly not her preference."

A second issue involved the wife's contention that she should be able to show that there was an ongoing agreement between her and her husband that she not work outside the home so she could properly raise her children during her visitation times. The court held that the law of the case required exclusion of this evidence since the court of appeals in the original divorce case held that any claimed agreement flowing from the Catholic marriage ceremony is unenforceable under the statute of frauds since it is an agreement made on the consideration of marriage that is not in writing.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on December 21, 2009 (boomark / email).