Child Support

Child support payments are calculated according to the District of Columbia Child Support Guidelines, available on the D.C. Child Support Services Division website. The law includes certain factors that a judge must consider in the calculation, including the:

• gross income of both parents;
• amount of any court-ordered child support paid by either parent for another child;
• cost of the child’s health insurance and extraordinary medical expenses;
• cost of reasonable childcare expenses for the child;
• number of children in the child support case;
• number of other biological or adopted children living in each parent’s home; and
• amount of time the child spends with each parent.¹

A judge must also consider a parent’s ability to provide for his/her own financial support. If a parent with a legal duty to pay support does not have enough income to also support himself/herself, then the judge will decide what is the reasonable amount of child support that parent can pay.² The judge will assume that the parent with limited income can pay $75 a month towards child support, but that amount can change if either parent convinces the judge otherwise.³

For more information on how to get your child support order enforced once you have an order in place, you can go to the D.C. Child Support Services Division website.

¹ D.C. Code § 16–916.01
² D.C. Code § 16–916.01(g)(2)
³ D.C. Code § 16–916.01(g)(3)(A)