If one partner attends school and receives a degree, how are the costs incurred by this effort evaluated in regards to equitable distribution? Is career support of a partner only evaluated from a monetary perspective or are other types of support (unbalanced caring for children, etc.) also considered?
Determining whether student loans or marital funds spent on education during the marriage, are marital or separate in nature, is a difficult thing to determine. There is no case law providing clear rules about educational costs/debts incurred during the marriage. A judge would consider various factors, including how long the marriage lasted after the degree was obtained, and how much of the debt was incurred on actual tuition v. other expenses like books and household goods. This will vary from case to case, and at the end of the day a judge would treat this as a distributional factor to consider (among all other factors). For example, a judge may choose to award a 60/40 split of marital assets justified by the costs/debt incurred for education during the marriage.
I’m not sure I understand your questions about if it is only evaluated from a monetary perspective or what you mean by unbalanced caring for children. If you could clarify I’d be happy to answer further.