Alabama Child Support Calculator

It depends on both parents’ monthly income before taxes (gross income) and the number of children. If you earn $1,000 a week, your one child lives with the other parent, and that parent earns $3,000 a month, you would pay about $569 a month, or $841 a month for two children. Child care and health insurance costs are added on top.

To build the table, we convert weekly pay to monthly pay (× 52 ÷ 12). In the first row, the paying parent earns $1,300 a month, so the low-income limit explained below caps support at $271. Alabama’s schedule, which lists support for both parents together, is the appendix to Alabama Rule of Judicial Administration 32.

Alabama uses an income shares formula, which means both parents’ incomes count. It adds both parents’ monthly incomes before taxes, looks up the schedule amount for that total, and divides it by each parent’s share of the income. Child care and health insurance costs are added and divided the same way.

The steps are in Rule 32(B) and (C):

1. Find each parent’s gross income from all sources, before taxes.
2. Subtract support already paid for other children and alimony paid to a former spouse under earlier orders.
3. Look up the schedule amount for the combined income, at the nearest $50 row.
4. Add child care and health insurance, then split the total by income share, rounded to a whole percent.
5. Credit the paying parent for child care or insurance they pay directly.
6. Limit it so the paying parent keeps $981 a month to live on.

Example

One parent earns $4,000 a month and the other $2,000, so their combined income is $6,000. The schedule amount for one child at that income is $851. The higher earner has 67% of the income, so with the child living mostly with the other parent, they pay about $570 a month.

Only at court-ordered 50/50 custody (equal or about equal time). Short of that, Alabama’s formula doesn’t change with parenting time. With one child and gross pay of $4,000 and $2,000 a month, the higher earner pays about $570 a month with every other weekend, still $570 at 45% of the time, and about $217 at 50/50.

The 50/50 worksheet (Form CS-42-S) applies only when a court order gives each parent 50% or about 50% of the time; an informal arrangement doesn’t count. It multiplies the schedule amount by 1.5 and splits that by income share. Each parent then gets a credit for half of the larger amount, and the parent who still owes something after the credit pays it. The calculator above uses it when you choose 50/50. See Rule 32(C)(7).

With less than equal time, a judge can still lower support when the paying parent has the children much more than usual, under Rule 32(A)(1)(a).

Child care a parent needs to work or look for work is added to basic support and split by income share. The parent who pays the provider gets credit for it. The amount counted can’t be more than the state’s limits for licensed care.

For example, if child care costs $600 a month and you have two thirds of the combined income, your share is $400. If the other parent pays the provider, that $400 is added to what you pay them. Child care while a parent is in job training or school isn’t added automatically, but a judge can count it. See Rule 32(B)(8) and (A)(1)(g).

Every Alabama order must cover the children’s health care, through private or public insurance, money toward medical costs, or both. The children’s share of the premium is added to basic support and split by income share, and the parent who pays it gets credit.

• Affordable: a parent can be ordered to provide insurance that costs them no more than 10% of their gross income.
• Close enough to use: ordinary medical care must be within 100 miles of the children’s home.
• Uncovered bills: the order can split costs insurance doesn’t pay. The schedule already includes up to $250 a year per child.

These rules are in Rule 32(B)(7).

If you get Family Assistance (Alabama’s cash assistance), you have to help DHR get child support from the other parent, or your benefits can be cut or stopped, and the support collected repays the state. Food Assistance (food stamps, or SNAP) doesn’t require this in Alabama.

• Family Assistance: you have to help DHR find the other parent and set up support, and hand over any support the other parent pays you directly. Your worker can excuse you in some cases, such as domestic violence.
• What your family keeps: none of the support collected while you get Family Assistance. The state keeps it, up to the assistance it paid. DHR’s guide to child support services covers both rules.
• Food Assistance: DHR’s eligibility summary doesn’t require you to help with child support. Child support you receive counts as income for food stamps.

Family Assistance, SSI, and food stamps don’t count as income in the child support formula, under Rule 32(B)(2).

Alabama lets the paying parent keep $981 a month to live on, an amount called the “self-support reserve.” Support can’t be more than 85% of what they earn above that amount. If 85% comes to less than $50, the limit is set at $50. These limits don’t apply with court-ordered 50/50 custody.

• Example: a paying parent who earns $1,200 a month, with the other parent earning $3,000, has a share of about $204 for one child. They have $219 above the $981, so support is limited to 85% of that: $186 a month. See Rule 32(C)(5).
• The $50 minimum raises only the limit. A parent with a very small share of the combined income can still owe less than $50, and a parent with no income owes $0 under the formula.
• $0 orders: a parent with no income who gets only public assistance, or who is in jail, prison, or an institution for more than 180 days in a row, is presumed to owe $0, under Rule 32(C)(6).
• Earning less by choice: a judge can base support on what a parent could earn if they quit or cut back on work by choice. Time in jail or prison doesn’t count as a choice, under Rule 32(B)(5).

Alabama’s schedule ends at $30,000 a month in combined income. Above that, a judge sets support case by case without extending the schedule.

At $30,000 combined, the schedule’s top row is $2,456 a month for one child and $3,599 for two. The rule is in Rule 32(C)(1).

Yes. A judge can order a different amount by finding in writing that the formula amount would be unfair, or by approving a fair written agreement between the parents that gives the reasons.

Reasons the rule lists include much more parenting time than usual, high travel costs for visits, college costs before the child turns 19, the child’s own savings or income, child care costing at least 20% more than the state’s limits, and the children’s best interests. A judge can also add large medical, dental, or school costs. See Rule 32(A)(1) and (C)(4).

Ask DHR to review your order, or file a petition to modify it in court. You need a big change since the last order that is likely to last; a new amount more than 10% different is presumed to be enough. The current order stays in effect until it changes.

• Through DHR: if DHR handles your case, ask for a review in writing. DHR reviews an order once every 3 years, or sooner after a big change like a sudden large sum of money or a serious medical crisis.
• Through the court: file a Modification Petition for Support (Form CS-10) with the court that entered the order. A new amount can start only from the date you file.

The rules are in Rule 32(A)(3). The Alabama child support guide walks through each step.

No online calculator. Courts use the Child-Support Guidelines form (CS-42), or CS-42-S for court-ordered 50/50 custody, which the court system publishes as PDF and Excel worksheets.

Alabama’s child support forms include both worksheets, the income affidavit (CS-41), and the notice of compliance (CS-43). Filled in with each parent’s income, the worksheet is what the judge works from.