ABA Family Legal Guide

Family Law

3.4 Separation, Annulment, and Divorce

Child Support

How do courts set child support?

Under federal law, all states have guidelines to determine child support. The guidelines are formulas that consider the income of the parties, the number of children, and perhaps some other factors. The formulas are based on studies of how much families ordinarily spend on child raising. The formulas try to approximate the proportion of parental income that would have been spent for support of the child if the family had not been divided by divorce. Courts plug numbers into the formula and come up with an amount of support that should be paid. The parties can argue that because of special circumstances, a court should order more or less support than the guideline amount.