Arkansas Child Support Calculator

It depends on both parents’ monthly income before taxes (gross income) and the number of children. For example, if you earn $4,000 a month, the other parent earns $2,000, and your one child lives with the other parent, you pay $543 a month. Health insurance, large medical bills, and child care can be added on top.

Each row turns weekly pay into monthly pay (× 52 ÷ 12). The amounts are the same with regular visits, such as every other weekend, because Arkansas’s formula changes only at about equal time. The table assumes neither parent pays support for other children. Arkansas’s Family Support Chart of starting amounts for both parents together, in $50 steps up to $30,000 a month and six children, is in Administrative Order No. 10.

Arkansas uses an income shares formula, which means both parents’ incomes count. It adds both parents’ monthly incomes before taxes, looks up the chart amount for that total, and splits it between the parents by their shares of the income. Health insurance, large medical bills, and child care are added and split the same way.

The steps are in Sections III to V of Administrative Order No. 10, the Arkansas Supreme Court’s guidelines, revised in 2020 and amended in October 2022:

1. Find each parent’s gross income from all sources, before taxes. The chart already accounts for taxes.
2. Subtract court-ordered support a parent pays for other children.
3. Look up the chart amount for the combined income and number of children.
4. Split it by income share, unless the paying parent is in the chart’s shaded low-income range.
5. Add insurance, large medical bills, and child care, split the same way, and subtract what the paying parent already pays for them.
6. Round down to the whole dollar.

Example

One parent earns $4,000 a month and the other $2,000, so their combined income is $6,000. The chart amount for one child at that income is $815. The higher earner has two thirds of the income, so with the child living mostly with the other parent, they pay $543 a month.

Yes, at about equal time. Each parent’s share of the chart amount is figured, and the parent with the larger share pays the difference between the two. Short of that, the formula doesn’t change, but once each parent has at least 141 nights a year, a judge can lower support case by case. With one child and gross pay of $4,000 and $2,000 a month, the higher earner pays $543 a month with every other weekend, still $543 at 45% of the time unless a judge lowers it, and about $271 at 50/50.

The rules don’t say how close to 50/50 counts as about equal, so the calculator above subtracts one share from the other only when you choose 50/50. With 141 or more nights each, the judge looks at how close the incomes are and which parent pays the children’s regular costs like clothes and activities. The chart assumes the paying parent has fewer than 141 nights. See Sections II and V.2 of Administrative Order No. 10.

Child care a parent pays so they can work or look for work goes on the worksheet, and the court can add it to support and split it by income share. If the paying parent pays the provider, they get credit for it.

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. The amount counted can’t be more than quality care from a licensed provider costs, under Section IV.3 of Administrative Order No. 10.

The court must consider health insurance for the children. Coverage is reasonable if adding the children costs no more than 5% of the providing parent’s gross income. The children’s premium and large medical bills can be added to support and split by income share.

• The cost counted: only what the parent pays to cover the children, not what an employer pays.
• Large medical bills: the chart already includes $250 a year per child in out-of-pocket costs. Costs above that, like orthodontia, therapy, or counseling, can be added.

See Section IV of Administrative Order No. 10.

If you get TEA (Arkansas’s cash assistance) or food stamps (SNAP), you have to help the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) get support, unless you have a good reason not to, such as a risk of violence. While you get TEA, OCSE keeps support up to your TEA grant and pays you only what is collected above it.

• Helping OCSE: parents getting TEA, some Medicaid, or food stamps must help OCSE set up and collect support (for example, by naming the other parent), or their benefits can be cut. For food stamps this includes the paying parent, under the state’s rule. If helping could put you or your children at risk, you can ask to be excused for “good cause”.
• What your family keeps: only support collected above the TEA grant, under the state’s distribution rule.
• Food stamps and back child support: Arkansas can also remove a household member from food stamps while they are behind on court-ordered support, according to the USDA SNAP State Options Report.

TEA, SSI, and food stamps don’t count as income in the formula, under Section III of Administrative Order No. 10.

The chart shades its low-income rows. When the paying parent’s own income falls in that shaded range, support is the chart amount for their income alone, without adding the other parent’s income, which gives a lower amount. A paying parent earning less than $900 a month is expected to pay at least $125, though a judge can order less for reasons like a disability or time in jail or prison.

• Example: a paying parent earning $1,300 a month, with the other parent earning $5,000 and two children, pays the chart amount for $1,300 alone: $284 a month. Child care and insurance aren’t added in this range, though a judge can consider them.
• The $125 minimum: a judge can order less for a lot of parenting time, time in jail or prison, a disability that prevents work, or SSI as the only income.
• Earning less by choice: a judge presumes both parents can work full time and can base support on what a parent could earn.

These rules are in Sections II.3 and III of Administrative Order No. 10.

No. The chart ends at $30,000 a month in combined income. Above that, the highest chart amount applies, and a judge can add more to meet the children’s needs.

At $30,000 combined, the chart is $1,952 a month for one child, $2,660 for two, and $3,145 for three. Above that, the judge looks at the children’s needs and the parent’s ability to pay, under Section II of Administrative Order No. 10.

Yes. A judge can order a different amount by finding in writing that the chart amount would be unfair or inappropriate, considering what is best for the children.

Reasons the guidelines list include private school or special education costs, high travel costs for visits, the children’s own income, extra time with the paying parent, and support for other children living in the home. The order must state the chart amount and explain any change. See Section II.2 of Administrative Order No. 10.

Ask OCSE to review your order, or file a petition to modify it in court. A change in either parent’s gross income of 20% or more, or more than $100 a month, is enough to ask the court. The current order stays in effect until it changes.

• Through OCSE: if OCSE manages your case, ask for a review in writing. OCSE reviews an order every 36 months, or sooner after a big change. Its page on changing an order explains the process.
• Through the court: file a petition to modify with the court that entered the order. The income-change rule is in Ark. Code § 9-14-107.

The Arkansas child support guide walks through each step.

Yes. The Arkansas Judiciary publishes the Arkansas Child Support Calculator, which fills in the Child Support Worksheet courts use.

The Arkansas Child Support Calculator takes the details this page leaves out, like support paid for other children, insurance, and child care. Filled in with each parent’s income, the worksheet is what the judge works from.