Without careful legal planning, you and your child could be facing:
And when child support terminates at 18, unless specific legal steps are taken now, a child who cannot support themselves may be left without the financial foundation they need. The decisions made during this divorce will shape your child’s care, stability, and future for decades.
Every Florida divorce involving minor children requires a parenting plan under Florida law. For families with special needs children, however, a standard parenting arrangement is rarely sufficient.
Children with autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities, mental health conditions, neurological disorders, or complex medical needs require parenting plans that carefully address daily structure, healthcare coordination, therapy schedules, educational planning, and long-term care needs.
The goal is not simply dividing time between parents, it is creating a legal framework that supports the child’s emotional, developmental, and medical needs as consistently as possible across two households.
Mayersohn Law Group represents Florida families navigating divorce and post-divorce matters involving children with special needs and long-term care considerations.
Our team handles matters involving:
Depending on the circumstances, careful legal planning may help families achieve parenting plans tailored to the child’s actual routines and needs, clear educational and medical decision-making provisions that reduce future conflict, child support arrangements that reflect extraordinary care expenses, protection of SSI and Medicaid eligibility, extended support planning for adult children with disabilities, and long-term continuity of care across both households.
Extraordinary care expenses, including therapy, adaptive equipment, specialized education, and in-home care, frequently require support arrangements that go well beyond standard child support guidelines. We document those costs and advocate for arrangements that reflect your child’s actual financial needs. Where SSI, Medicaid, or other disability-related benefits are part of the picture, we coordinate with financial and estate planning professionals to ensure settlements are structured in a way that preserves eligibility.
Our firm has decades of experience handling complex family law matters throughout South Florida, and we are available 24/7 for families navigating one of the most difficult transitions they will ever face.
In some cases, yes. Florida Statute 743.07(2) allows courts to order continued financial support for adult children who cannot support themselves due to a mental or physical incapacity that began before adulthood. This issue should be addressed during the divorce process, ideally well before the child approaches 18, so the legal framework is already in place when the standard child support obligation would otherwise terminate.
Parenting plans involving special needs children often require detailed provisions addressing therapy schedules, IEP participation, medical decision-making authority, transition protocols between households, medication management, and coordination of care across providers. Under Florida Statute 61.13, courts have broad authority to craft highly customized plans tailored to a child’s specific needs. Standard parenting plan templates rarely address these issues in sufficient detail.
Potentially, if the settlement is not carefully structured. Assets placed directly in the child’s name or improperly structured support arrangements can affect eligibility for SSI, Medicaid, and other government benefit programs. Special Needs Trust planning and coordination with financial professionals during the divorce process can help preserve eligibility and protect the child’s long-term financial stability.
This depends entirely on how the parenting plan allocates decision-making authority. A parenting plan can include detailed provisions governing IEP meetings, educational services, school placement, therapy decisions, and related matters, specifying which parent has final authority, how disputes are resolved, and what communication is required between parents and the school. Without these provisions, educational disputes frequently return to court.
Generally before the child turns 18. Once a child reaches legal adulthood, parents may lose certain legal decision-making authority, including the ability to access medical records, make healthcare decisions, and manage financial matters, unless guardianship or other legal protections such as supported decision-making agreements or a durable power of attorney are established. Addressing this during the divorce process gives both parents clarity and avoids an urgent legal scramble as the child approaches adulthood.
Yes. Florida Statute 61.30 allows courts to deviate from standard child support guidelines when extraordinary expenses are involved, including therapy, medical care, specialized education, adaptive equipment, in-home caregiving, and transportation costs specific to the child’s needs. Documenting these expenses thoroughly during the divorce process is essential to ensuring the support order actually reflects the cost of caring for the child.
Disagreements over medical treatment, therapy providers, or behavioral interventions are among the most common, and most damaging, sources of post-divorce conflict for special needs families. A well-drafted parenting plan anticipates these disputes and includes provisions for how they are resolved, including which parent has final decision-making authority on specific categories of decisions and what process must be followed before either parent can act unilaterally. Without these provisions, every significant care disagreement becomes a potential return to court.
Yes. Florida courts may approve modifications to parenting plans and support orders when a substantial change in circumstances affects the child’s best interests or ongoing care needs. For special needs children, changes in diagnosis, evolving medical needs, changes in educational placement, or the aging out of certain support services can all constitute grounds for modification. Building flexibility and clear modification triggers into the original parenting plan, wherever possible, reduces the frequency of future court intervention.
