Court Orders

Child Support Guidelines

Shared-Placement Cases

Courts may use the shared-placement guidelines when a court gives each parent placement of the child for at least 25% of the time (at least 92 days/year).

• The court will order each parent to assume the child’s basic support costs in proportion to the time that the parent cares for the child. Basic support costs are food, shelter, clothing, transportation, personal care and incidental recreational costs.
• The court must also assign responsibility for payment of the child’s variable costs in proportion to each parent’s share of placement.
• Incomes of both parents are used to set the amount of support.
• The parent’s share of placement determines that parent’s share of support.

Example: Parents have 2 children

Parent A: Monthly gross income is $2,000
Cares for both children 219 days a year (60% of the time)

Parent B: Monthly gross income is $3,000
Cares for both children 146 days a year (40% of the time)

This chart does not include payments for the children’s variable costs.	Parent A	Parent B
Monthly Income	$2,000	$3,000
Multiply the Monthly Income by the Percentage Standard for 2 children (25%)	x 25%	x 25%
# 1	$500	$750
For each parent, multiply the amount in line #1 by 150%. The 150% accounts for the basic support costs paid by both parents (food, shelter, clothing, etc.)	x 150%	x 150%
# 2	$750	$1,125
Multiply the amount in line #2 by the percent of time the children spend with the other parent	x 40%	x 60%
#3	$300	$675
Offset – subtract the amount in line #3 for Parent A’s (the parent with the lower amount) from the amount in line #3 for Parent B (parent with the higher amount). Parent B will pay $375 (estimate).	$675 - $300 = $375

Tools to Estimate Support

• Worksheets & calculators

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