A parent who is required to pay child support has a legal obligation to make financial contributions to his or her child's education and future. These payments are calculated by using a set of Illinois law guidelines. When a parent is unable to make the payments, however, legal action may be necessary.

Child support obligations are based on a parent's income and the number of children who are involved. More frequently, parents are requiring modifications to child support payments because of fluctuating incomes. It is not uncommon these days for a parent to lose or change jobs. When this happens, a judge may grant a modification to payments in order to adjust for the change.

While it is ideal that a parent will make his or her payments in full and on time, there are situations when a parent cannot or does not pay.

Recently, NBA player Antoine Walker has fallen significantly behind on his child support payments. According to the mother of Walker's youngest daughter, he has failed to make his payments for more than two years. As a result, his daughter's tuition to the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools has not been paid.

Typically, legal action may be taken. Failure to pay child support can be treated as contempt of court, which may lead to serious consequences. However, in this case a judge determined that no action can be taken against Walker because a pending bankruptcy case is preventing that from happening.

The mother is reportedly upset as the missed payments are putting her daughter's education in jeopardy.

Would this situation have been prevented if Walker had sought a payment modification early on that would accommodate any significant change in his financial status? That is unknown. At this point, officials are saying that a federal judge will have to determine whether or not the child support complaint can proceed even though Walker's bankruptcy case is not settled.

Source: UPI, "A.Walker faces child-support allegations," Dec. 23, 2011