Child Support in The United States | Child Support United States

The law governing child support in the United States varies state-by-state and tribe-by-tribe among Native Americans; each individual state and federally recognized tribe is responsible for developing its own guidelines for determining child support. In the US, child support is the ongoing obligation for a periodic payment made directly or indirectly by an ("obligor" or paying parent or payer) to an ("obligee" or receiving party or recipient) for the financial care and support of children of a relationship or a possibly terminated marriage. Typically the obligor is a non-custodial parent. Typically the obligee is a custodial parent, caregiver or guardian, or a government agency. In the U.S., there is no gender requirement to child support, for example, a father may pay a mother or a mother may pay a father. In addition, where there is joint custody, in which the child has two custodial parents and no non-custodial parents, a custodial parent may be required to pay the other custodial parent.

The United States has an overarching federal government framework. The child support program is the responsibility of the Administration for Children and Families in the Department of Health and Human Services. Federal IV-D Regulations require uniform application of child support guidelines throughout a state, but each state can determine its own method of calculating support. At a minimum, 45 C.F.R. 302.56 requires each state to establish and publish a Guideline that is presumptively (but rebuttably) correct, and review the guideline, at a minimum, every four years. Most states have therefore adopted their own "Child Support Guidelines Worksheet" which local courts and state Child Support Enforcement Offices use for determining the "standard calculation" of child support in that state. Courts may choose to deviate from this standard calculation in any particular case.

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