Below is a link to a case where the parties had an Order from the Court regarding child support. They later supposedly agreed that the child support amount would not increase as per the court order, but instead Mr. Ochsner would pay the original child support and the daycare and tuition costs for his child directly to the daycare and school.
There is no dispute that Mr. Ochsner paid these amounts. In fact the parties agreed that Mr. Ochsner paid MORE than he would have had to pay if he had paid the child support as per the court Order, however, because he did not follow the court Order it was found that he was delinquent in paying his child support by $55,569.40. Despite the fact that he actually paid more than $23,000 more than what he would have paid in child support, the court ruled that he still owed the child support per the court Order.
How could this have been handled better you might ask? If you have an agreement that is contrary to your court order you need to file a modification with the Court and have the agreement reflected in a modified Order. If Mr. Ochsner had done this then his direct payments would have been sufficient because it would have been reflected in the court Order.