California Family Code § 3587: Stipulated Agreement for Adult Child Support

Plain-Language Summary

California Family Code Section 3587 is a special rule that lets parents extend child support beyond the usual cutoff when a child becomes an adult. Normally, child support ends when a child turns 18 (or finishes high school). Under § 3587, if both parents voluntarily agree (for example, in a divorce settlement) to continue supporting their child after age 18, a court can approve that agreement. In simple terms, this law allows a judge to turn the parents’ agreement to support an adult child into a legally binding child support order.

Real-World Examples

During a divorce, both parents agree in writing that they will keep paying support for their 19-year-old son while he attends college. Under this law, the judge can approve their agreement and issue a child support order that continues until the agreed-upon end date (such as graduation).
The parents of a 20-year-old with special needs decide to continue financial support for their adult child. Family Code § 3587 allows the court to formalize this arrangement by making their agreement an official, enforceable support order.
After their daughter turns 18 and graduates high school, a divorced couple agrees to pay her living expenses for two more years while she attends community college. Thanks to § 3587, the court can adopt this voluntary agreement and issue an order requiring both parents to continue these support payments as promised.

Published Case Law on § 3587

In re Marriage of Smith & Maescher (1993) 21 Cal.App.4th 100 – A divorce case where the parents’ settlement included paying for their children’s college expenses. The Court of Appeal recognized that this agreement constituted support beyond majority under § 3587 and allowed the mother (as a contracting party) to sue to enforce the college-support provision. (The court noted in dicta that even the adult child might have a claim as a third-party beneficiary, given a sufficiently clear contract)
In re Marriage of Lurie (1995) 33 Cal.App.4th 658 – The parents’ out-of-state divorce decree incorporated a stipulation for child support “until each child is 21.” The California court acknowledged that under § 3587 it can approve parental agreements for post-majority support. However, it found no enforceable obligation beyond age 18 in this case, reasoning that the stipulation to support until 21 merely matched New York’s age of majority and did not “expressly or unmistakably” extend support past the legal age of majority.
In re Marriage of Jensen (2003) 114 Cal.App.4th 587 – Here, a marital settlement agreement required the mother to facilitate visitation with a disabled adult child. The court held it lacked authority to enforce such provisions, emphasizing that while § 3587 permits courts to enforce parents’ agreements for adult child *support*, no similar statute extends court jurisdiction to custody or visitation of an adult child. In other words, parents may contract for post-majority support per § 3587, but they cannot confer custody/visitation jurisdiction once the child is an adult (absent other legal proceedings).
In re Marriage of Rosenfeld & Gross (Drescher v. Gross) (2014) 225 Cal.App.4th 478 – The divorcing parents agreed to split future college costs for their children. The Court of Appeal confirmed that an adult child support order based on such an agreement falls under § 3587, and it clarified that the court’s power to modify that support is limited by the parents’ contract. In this case, because the settlement did not expressly make the college-support nonmodifiable, the court ruled that the support provision was subject to modification on a showing of changed circumstances (reversing the trial court, which had wrongly assumed it lacked jurisdiction to modify).

Full Text of California Family Code § 3587

3587. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the court has the authority to approve a stipulated agreement by the parents to pay for the support of an adult child or for the continuation of child support after a child attains the age of 18 years and to make a support order to effectuate the agreement.

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