Characteristics of Shared-Placement Child Support Formulas Used in the Fifty States: A Report to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Bureau of Child Support

Abstract

Most persons would agree that in divorce and paternity cases where separated parents share time with the child equally, where responsibilities for costs of raising the child are shared equally, and where incomes of the parents are similar, no child support payment is necessary. When the time spent with parents is not equal, the incomes of the parents are not equal, or the responsibilities for costs are not equal, most child support policy makers would agree that an order of child support is appropriate. Under these circumstances, however, child support guidelines are needed because it is not intuitively obvious what an equitable child support order would be.

This report is an update of a report by Melli and Brown (1994) that explored the use of guidelines in shared placement cases in the early 1990s. That report noted that eleven states did not address the issue of shared placement. As of June 2006, however, only three states did not acknowledge shared placement (alternatively referred to as “extended visitation,” “parenting time,” “joint physical custody,” or “dual residence”).

Keywords: Child Support, Wisconsin Law, Paternity, Divorce, Equitable Child Support Orders, Child Placement, Shared Placement