Child Support Laws & Regulations

While child support is a fact of life for nearly all noncustodial parents nationwide, each one of the states has its own set of laws for calculating, enforcing and modifying a parent's obligation to support his minor children. Despite the variation among the states, individual child support laws and regulations have some similar characteristics across the board.

Where to Find the Law

• In the age of the Internet, state law is more accessible than ever. Each state now has its code of laws available for public view on the Internet, and some even boast a search function. Within each state code, you can generally locate laws pertaining to child support calculation, enforcement and modification in the section on family law or domestic relations. Some states also have child support law in their child welfare chapter, appearing with statutes on state and local child support enforcement agencies.

Child Support Calculation

• State child support guidelines typically take into account a variety of factors in arriving at an amount of support for the noncustodial parent to pay. These factors attempt to address the needs of the children and the ability of each parent to pay in setting support. The North Carolina Child Support Guidelines, for example, require an input of each parent's gross income, with each receiving a credit against that income for responsibility for other children who are not part of the support agreement. Parents with higher income, therefore, tend to pay higher child support. North Carolina's guidelines also factor in medical insurance premiums, work-related child care costs and extraordinary expenses such as special education and orthodontia.

Child Support Enforcement

• Individual state laws on child support will also contain mechanisms for enforcing child support orders. States can allow for the suspension of a delinquent parent's driver's license or professional license and also provide for child support liens against the real and personal property of the obligor. Additionally, states can garnish the wages of obligors on a monthly basis to ensure that child support gets paid before any of the parent's other bills. In some cases, parents who fail to pay can be subject to incarceration for civil or criminal contempt of court.

Child Support Modification

• As child support obligations can endure for more than 18 years in some states, and circumstances of parents and children change over time, each state has a mechanism for modifying a child support obligation as well as enforcing it. While the circumstantial changes justifying the modification of a child support order may appear in the statute, many more will lie buried in case law, requiring more detailed research by the prospective litigant.

Interstate Matters

• The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), adopted in every state, governs the enforcement of child support obligations set in other states. This set of statutes, which may appear in its own chapter, depending on the state, prevents parents from escaping child support orders by moving out of state. Detailed notice and modification provisions protect the due process rights of all parties.