CHILD SUPPORT

When parents of a child are separated, the Family Code provides guidelines for the calculation of child support to ensure that the parent with whom the child primarily resides has the resources (money) to provide for the needs of the child. These calculations are based on the income of the non-custodial/non-primary parent, taking into consideration if that parent has other children to whom they owe a duty of support.

In certain situations, the court can deviate from these guidelines, taking into account factors like how much time the child spends with each parent, if a child has certain medical or educational needs, if the child is disabled or has expenses beyond what guideline support can provide, or when the parent who owes support earns less than a certain amount per month and their monthly net resources are considered “low-income.”