Groover and Sheridan (Child support)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application by Groover (the applicant) to extend a child support assessment beyond the eighteenth birthday of the child concerned. Sheridan (the respondent) was the other party to the child support assessment. The core of the dispute concerned whether the child was still undertaking full-time study at a secondary school, a condition precedent for extending child support beyond the age of 18 under the relevant legislation.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether the child qualified as a "relevant child" for the purposes of extending the child support assessment beyond their eighteenth birthday. Specifically, the Tribunal had to ascertain if the child was undertaking a course of full-time study at a secondary school, as defined by the *Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988* (Cth).

The Tribunal affirmed the initial decision to extend the child support assessment. It reasoned that the child was indeed undertaking full-time study at a secondary school, meeting the criteria stipulated in the Act. The definition of "secondary school" and "full-time study" as applied to the child's circumstances satisfied the legislative requirements for an extension of the assessment beyond the child's eighteenth birthday.