CHAPTER TWELVE

Child Support

Bob and Mary decided to divorce, and share joint custody of their children, a girl, 12, and a boy, 5. Both parents work outside the home. Bob earns $60,000 per year, and Mary earns $25,000 per year. The younger child is in an after-school daycare program, and both children go to summer camp. How will child support be determined and who will be responsible for college expenses if the children go to college?

The starting point for determining child support is the set of guidelines that haves been established by the state legislature or by court rule. Under federal laws passed in the 1980s, states must establish guidelines for determining child support. The guidelines were required because the federal government believed that the amounts ordered for child support had been too low and that there was too much variation in the amounts of support for children in similar circumstances.

Child support guidelines generally resulted in the desired effect: child support payments increased by approximately 50 percent and support payments within each state became more uniform than they were before guidelines were passed.

Guidelines are formulas that consider the income of the parents, the number of children, and perhaps some other factors. The formulas are based on studies of how much families ordinarily spend on raising children.

Guidelines try to approximate the proportion of parental income that would have been spent supporting a 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 for the child or children. The guidelines apply equally to children born to married parents and to children born out of wedlock.

Parents can argue that because of special circumstances, a court should order more or less support than the guideline amount.

• Determining Parents' Incomes and Types of Support Guidelines
• Departing from Support Guidelines
• Effect of Joint Custody
• Child Support During Summer Vacations
• College Expenses
• Modification of Child Support
• Reducing Support When Child Reaches 18
• Unpaid Child Support
• Chart: Child Support Paid by Fathers and Mothers
• Enforcement
• The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act
• Assistance in Enforcing Child Support Orders
• Collecting Past-Due Child Support
• Child Support and Visitation