Child Support

The amount of support the court will order depends on the parents’ income and how much time they spend with their children. Using South Dakota’s child support guidelines, the court will determine each parent’s net income and then add those amounts together to get a baseline support amount. This amount is then split between you and the other parent in proportion to each of your incomes.¹

“Net income” is gross income minus deductions.² Generally speaking, gross income is money you receive on a regular basis from work or other income streams. You can see the complete list of income sources the court will consider when deciding “gross income” on our Selected South Dakota Statutes page. ³

If a parent’s income alone isn’t enough to cover his/her share of your child’s needs, the court can look at a parent’s other assets and his/her ability to borrow money to make up the difference. Other assets can include things like savings or life insurance.⁴

The South Dakota Department of Social Services provides a child support calculator and a child support obligation worksheet to help you estimate child support. These tools are only set up for situations where your child lives with you most of the time.

If you have a custody order that says your child should spend at least 180 nights per year in each parent’s home, you probably have “shared” or “joint” physical custody.⁵ If this is your situation, you can use the shared parenting child support obligation worksheet instead.

If either parent disagrees with the payment amount suggested by the guidelines, s/he can ask the court to consider ordering a different amount. Any changes to the guidelines amount must be based on at least one of several specific factors.⁶

If you’d like to talk to an attorney for advice, please visit our Finding a Lawyer page.

¹ SDCL § 25-7-6.2
² SDCL § 25-7-6.7
³ SDCL §§ 25-7-6.3; 25-7-6.4
⁴ SDCL § 25-7-6.5
⁵ SDCL § 25-7-6.27
⁶ SDCL § 25-7-6.10