The two parents in every case
Every child support case has a custodial parent and a non-custodial parent. The custodial parent is the one the child lives with and who carries the day to day responsibility. The non-custodial parent is usually the one who pays.
How the number is worked out
Child support is calculated using the New Jersey child support guidelines. The guidelines start with a basic child support amount built on the combined income of both parents. That amount is then split between you, based on what each of you earns and how much time the child spends with each of you.
A warning worth having. The Child Support QuickCalc on NJChildSupport.org is usually wrong. Do not plan around a number it gives you.
What basic child support already covers
The basic figure is meant to cover housing, food, the child's clothing, transportation, unreimbursed health care up to $250, entertainment, and everyday things like personal care items.
Some costs sit on top of that basic figure and are added into the calculation:
- Child care
- The child's health insurance
- Health care costs over $250 a year that are predictable and keep coming back
- Other costs the court approves
When the guidelines do not decide it
New Jersey Court Rule 5:6A only lets a court change or set aside the guidelines where good cause is shown, or where Appendix IX-A says so. The most common reason is money: once the parents' combined net income passes $187,200, the guidelines stop doing the whole job.
In a case like that the court works through the factors in N.J.S.A. 2A:34-23a:
- The needs of the child
- The standard of living and the financial circumstances of each parent
- Every source of income and every asset each parent has
- What each parent is able to earn, taking in education, training, job skills, work history, the responsibility of having the children, the cost of child care, and how long and how much it would take to get qualified for suitable work
- What the child needs and is capable of by way of education, including college
- The age and health of the child and of each parent
- The child's own income, assets and earning ability
- Any other people either parent is under a court order to support
- The reasonable debts and liabilities of the child and of each parent
- Anything else the court decides is relevant
College
Yes, a New Jersey judge can make a parent contribute to a child's college costs, and can order child support to carry on while the child is at college.
Where the parents cannot agree, the court decides it on the factors set out in Newburgh v. Arrigo. Among them are how much is being asked for, whether the parent can pay, the school and the course of study, the child's commitment and ability, what money the child has of their own such as a 529 plan, what financial aid is available, and the state of the relationship between the child and the parent.
When child support ends
Child support in New Jersey ends by law on the child's nineteenth birthday. There are exceptions. It can run on, generally to no later than the child's twenty third birthday, where the child is still in high school, is in college or vocational school full time, or has a disability that began before nineteen.
It can also end sooner. Support stops if the child is emancipated by the court, joins the military on active service, or is adopted by somebody else.
Nothing stops on its own without warning. Where the order runs through the Probation Division, both parents are written to about six months before the nineteenth birthday, and again about ninety days before the date support is set to end. If one of the exceptions applies, the custodial parent has to ask in writing for support to continue, before the child turns nineteen.
Changing an order that no longer fits
Either parent can ask for a child support order to be changed. New Jersey courts are cautious about it, and want to see a real and significant change in circumstances. The usual reasons are:
- The cost of living has gone up
- Either parent's income has gone up or down in a meaningful way
- A parent or the child has become seriously ill or disabled
- The child's needs have changed, often around school, activities or medical care
- The parenting time or the custody arrangement has substantially changed