District of Columbia District of Columbia

Child Support Laws

What Is Child Support?

Child support is an ongoing payment by a non-custodial parent to assist with the financial support of their children. Child support payments are often determined during the process of dissolution of a marriage through divorce, though the only requirements for requesting child support payments are establishment of paternity and maternity.

Child support is handled on a state level, and District of Columbia has a set of specific child support guidelines. On this page you can learn about how child support is calculated in District of Columbia, how custody split and extraordinary costs affect child support payments, and more.




District of Columbia Child Support Law Summary

District of Columbia uses the "income share" method for calculating child support payments, which is designed to ensure that both the custodial and non-custodial parents contribute to their child's upkeep.

District of Columbia's child support formula directly accounts for parents who share custody of a child, and support payment amounts are connected to the custody split. Other special situations accounted for under District of Columbia's child support law include childcare costs and extraordinary medical costs. These costs may be additions to the basic District of Columbia child support order.

For the purposes of this paragraph, the standard of living of a household shall be measured by dividing the gross income available to the household from all sources by the federal poverty guideline, as reported by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, for the number of adults contributing to the household, plus the number of children



  • A child subject to the support order has regular and substantial income that can be used for the care of the child without impairment of the child’s current or future education


  • The parent with a legal duty to pay support has special needs that increase the costs of the parent’s subsistence


  • The parent with a legal duty to pay support pays for certain expensive necessities for the child, such as tuition


  • The parent with a legal duty to pay support is 18 years old or younger and a full-time student


  • The child is a respondent in a neglect proceeding and has been placed outside the home with a goal of reunification with the parent


  • Any other exceptional circumstance that would yield a patently unfair result.




The factors that may be considered to overcome the presumption are:



  • The needs of the child are exceptional and require more than average expenditures


  • The gross income of the parent with a legal duty to pay support is substantially less than that of the parent to whom support is owed


  • A property settlement provides resources readily available for the support of the child in an amount at least equivalent to the guideline amount


  • Either parent supports a dependent other than a child subject to the support order, including a biological or adoptive child, a step-child, or an elderly relative, and application of the guideline would result in extraordinary hardship




The parent with a legal duty to pay support needs a temporary period of reduced child support payments to permit the repayment of a debt or rearrangement of the parent’s financial obligations; a temporary reduction may be included in a support order if:



  • The debt or obligation is for a necessary expenditure of reasonable cost in light of the parent’s family responsibilities


  • The time of the reduction does not exceed 12 months


  • The support order includes the amount that is to be paid at the end of the reduction period and the date that the higher payments are to commence




(6) The parent to whom support is owed receives child support for a child living in this parent’s home, other than the child subject to the support order, and the resulting gross income of the household to which support is owed causes the standard of living of that household to be greater than that of the household of the parent with a legal duty to pay support.

(3) If the judicial officer determines that the parent to whom support is owed cannot meet his or her subsistence needs and the parent with a legal duty to pay support has an adjusted gross income below the self-support reserve under subsection (g) of this section, the judicial officer shall determine whether, for the support and maintenance of the child, the parent with a legal duty to pay support should pay more than he or she would otherwise be required to pay pursuant to subsection (g)(3) of this section.


District of Columbia Child Support Calculation Formula Methods

Child support can be arranged out of court by a mutual support agreement between the parents, or can be decided in District of Columbia family court through a child support order. In District of Columbia, a number of factors are taken into account when determining the amount of child support to be paid in court. Here is an explanation of the two most common methods used to calculate basic child support amounts.

Income Share Method

Under the income share model, the court uses economic tables to estimate the total monthly cost of raising the children. The non-custodial parent pays a percentage of the calculated cost that is based on their proportional share of both parents' combined income.

Example: The non-custodial parent of one child has an income of $2,000 per month, and the custodial parent has an income of $1,000 per month. The court estimates that the cost of raising one child is $1,000 a month. The non-custodial parent's income is 66.6% of the parent's total combined income. Therefore, the non-custodial parent pays $666 per month in child support, or 66.6% of the total child support obligation.

District of Columbia does use the income share method to calculate child support

Percentage Of Income Method

This method of calculating child support is simple - a set percentage of the non-custodial parent's income is paid monthly to the custodial parent to cover basic child support expenses. The percentage paid may stay the same, or vary if the non-custodial parent's income changes.

Example: The non-custodial parent of one child has an income of $2,000 per month. The court orders a flat percentage of 25% of the non-custodial parent's income to be paid in child support to the custodial parent. Therefore, the non-custodial parent pays $500 per month in child support. If the non-custodial parent's monthly income changes, the dollar amount they pay in child support will change as well.

District of Columbia does not use the percentage of income method to calculate child support

District of Columbia Child Support Frequently Asked Questions


How does having shared custody of the child affect child support in District of Columbia?

All states have a method of modifying the amount of child support owed in cases where the custody agreement provides for joint or shared custody of a child between both parents.

District of Columbia law accounts for shared custody of a child directly in the child support formula used to calculate payment amounts. This means that, in cases where custody is shared, the amount of child support paid by the paying parent will be reduced according to the amount of time they have custody of the child.


How are extraordinary medical costs treated by child support in District of Columbia?

District of Columbia has specialized guidelines for the sharing of a child's extraordinary medical care costs that are separate from, and in addition to, basic child support payments. Extraordinary medical costs are generally costs generated by things such as illness, hospital visits, or costly procedures such as getting braces.


How are child care costs treated by child support in District of Columbia?

Due to the high costs of child care for a single payment, District of Columbia has specialized guidelines that consider child care costs separately from the general costs of raising a child for the purposes of calculating child support payments.


Does child support cover college education expenses in District of Columbia?

While the District of Columbia has no explicit requirement for college expenses to be covered under child support, support for college expense by the non-custodial parent may be voluntarily agreed to by both parties, after which it is contractually enforceable.


How is child support enforced in District of Columbia?

In the District of Columbia, child support is enforced by the state child support agency. The state agency handles the location of non-custodial parents, enforcement of support orders, and the handling of unpaid child support arrears.


What are child support arrears?

Child support arrears are the amount of child support that is delinquent, or unpaid, by the noncustodial parent to the custodial parent. Child support arrears may be collected by the state through wage garnishment, bank levy. withholding of District of Columbia welfare benefits, or other collection methods.


How are child support payments taxed in District of Columbia?

Under IRS guidelines, the recepient of child support does not need to pay federal tax on child support payments, and the payer of child support cannot deduct their child support payments. This differs from the federal taxation of alimony payments, which are treated as taxable income by the receiver and are deductible by the payor. District of Columbia tax law may vary on tax treatment of child support.



| State Law Official Text


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Source: http://www.maritallaws.com/states/district-of-columbia/child-support