Connecticut Child Support Calculator

Connecticut’s schedule lists a starting weekly amount for your children, owed by both parents together. It depends on both parents’ combined weekly net income (income after taxes) and how many children you have. The paying parent pays a share that matches their part of the combined income. For example, if you earn $4,333 a month before taxes, the other parent earns $3,000, and the children live with the other parent, you pay about $737 a month for one child and $1,105 for two, before child care and health care costs.

Connecticut’s schedule uses net income, so the calculator estimates each parent’s federal and Connecticut income taxes, Social Security and Medicare, and the Connecticut Paid Leave contribution. The parent the children live with files as head of household and claims them, and the other parent files single. With equal time, both file single. In the lowest rows, the paying parent’s income is in Connecticut’s low-income range, so they pay the schedule amount for their own income alone, whatever the other parent earns. The full schedule, up to six children, is in section 46b-215a-2c(e) of the 2026 guidelines.

Connecticut uses an income shares formula: it adds both parents’ net weekly incomes, looks up the schedule amount for that income, and has the paying parent pay their share. A paying parent with a low income pays the schedule amount for their own income instead.

The rules are in section 46b-215a-2c(c) of the 2026 guidelines:

1. Find each parent’s net weekly income. Start with gross income (hourly wages up to 45 hours a week) and subtract income taxes, Social Security and Medicare, health insurance premiums, mandatory union dues, court-ordered life and disability insurance, and support paid for others. Public assistance, SSI, and the earned income tax credit don’t count.
2. Check the paying parent’s own income first, rounded to the nearest $10. If it falls in the low-income range (the schedule’s darker shaded area) for your number of children, the schedule amount for their income alone is their basic support.
3. Otherwise add both incomes, round to the nearest $10, and look up the schedule amount.
4. Split it by each parent’s share of the combined income, rounded to a whole percent.
5. Subtract Social Security benefits the child gets because of the paying parent’s work record.
6. Add each parent’s share of health care and child care costs.

Example

One parent has net income of $1,200 a week and the other $800, so their combined income is $2,000. The schedule amount for one child is $365 a week. The higher earner has 60% of the income, so with the child living mostly with the other parent, they pay $219 a week, or about $949 a month.

Not through the formula. Connecticut’s formula gives no credit for overnights, so having the children 30% or 40% of the time doesn’t change the amount. With shared physical custody (about equal time), the parent with the higher income pays their share, and a judge can lower it. With net incomes of $1,200 and $800 a week and one child, the higher earner pays about $949 a month, whether the child lives mostly with the other parent or the parents share time equally.

Shared physical custody means the children have about equal time with both parents; there is no overnight number to reach. A judge can lower support if shared custody lowers the lower-income parent’s costs or raises the higher-income parent’s costs, as long as the children still have enough. A judge can also lower it when both parents earn about the same. See sections 46b-215a-1(24), -2c(c)(7), and -5c(b)(6) of the 2026 guidelines.

The paying parent pays a share of child care the other parent needs to keep working. The share depends on each parent’s income after child support is paid. A paying parent with a low income usually pays 20% of the cost instead.

The cost must be reasonable, needed for the parent to keep working, not covered by a subsidy, and no more than quality licensed care would cost. When the other parent’s income is also low, a low-income paying parent pays their share or half, whichever is less. See section 46b-215a-2c(g) of the 2026 guidelines.

Every order covers the children’s health care. A parent puts them on a health plan if one is available at a reasonable cost. If no plan is available, a parent applies for HUSKY B (Connecticut’s health coverage for children). A parent can also be ordered to pay toward the premiums. Medical and dental bills that insurance doesn’t pay are split by each parent’s share of income after child support is paid.

• Reasonable cost: coverage is reasonable if it costs no more than 7.5% of the parent’s net income, or 5% for a low-income parent, under section 46b-84 of the Connecticut General Statutes.
• Uninsured bills: a low-income paying parent pays no more than half.
• HUSKY: a low-income paying parent, or the parent the children live with, can’t be ordered to pay toward HUSKY A or HUSKY B.

See section 46b-215a-2c(f) of the 2026 guidelines.

If the children live with you and you get Temporary Family Assistance (TFA, Connecticut’s cash assistance program), you have to help the state get child support from the other parent unless you’re excused. The state keeps most of the support collected to repay TFA, but your family keeps the first $50 a month. Food stamps (SNAP) don’t require this.

• Temporary Family Assistance: under Connecticut’s TFA law, a family that doesn’t help with child support, and isn’t excused, can’t get TFA. The first $50 of current support each month goes to the family and doesn’t lower TFA.
• Food stamps (SNAP): Connecticut doesn’t require help with child support for SNAP, according to the USDA SNAP State Options Report.
• Income: cash assistance and SSI don’t count as income in the support calculation, under section 46b-215a-1(11) of the 2026 guidelines.

If helping could put you or your children in danger, such as a risk of violence, ask DSS to excuse you for “good cause.” The Connecticut child support guide covers what helping involves.

If the paying parent’s net income is under $145 a week, they owe no current support. If it is up to about $480 a week (for one child), they pay a lower amount based on their own income alone.

• Examples: with one child, a paying parent with net income of $150 a week owes $15 a week ($65 a month), and one with $300 a week owes $30 a week ($130 a month), whatever the other parent earns.
• Where the low-income range ends: $480 a week for one child, and $560, $620, $690, $760, and $840 for two to six children. The worksheet calls this range the darker shaded area.
• Amount kept to live on: the low-income amounts let the paying parent keep $362 a week, 125% of the 2024 federal poverty guideline for one person.
• Earning less than they could: a judge can set a different amount based on what a parent could earn.

Incomes are rounded to the nearest $10 before the lookup, so $145 a week is read as $150. See the schedule in section 46b-215a-2c of the 2026 guidelines and its preamble.

No. The schedule ends at $6,000 combined net income a week (about $26,000 a month). Above that, a judge decides support case by case. It is at least the amount in the top row, and at most the top row’s percentage of income applied to the parents’ full combined income.

The top row’s weekly amounts are $757 for one child, $1,096 for two, and $1,258 for three, under section 46b-215a-2c(a)(2) of the 2026 guidelines.

Yes. A judge can order a different amount if the guideline amount would be unfair for one of the reasons the guidelines list. The judge has to state that finding in the court record.

The reasons include a parent’s large assets or ability to earn much more; a child’s unusually high education, medical, or special needs costs; high costs for a parent’s visits with the children; a parent’s other dependents; alimony and property division; shared physical custody; a parent the children live with earning far more; and a total order above 55% of the paying parent’s net income. See section 46b-215a-5c of the 2026 guidelines.

Ask Support Enforcement Services for a review, or file a motion in court to change the order. If the guideline amount today would be at least 15% higher or lower than your current order, that difference is usually treated as enough for a change. Keep paying the current order until it changes.

• Through Support Enforcement Services: in state child support cases, either parent can ask for a review every three years without showing a change, or sooner after a big change, under section 46b-231.
• Through the court: file a Motion for Modification (JD-FM-174) with the Superior Court.

The rules are in section 46b-86 of the Connecticut General Statutes. The Connecticut child support guide walks through each step.

No. Connecticut uses the Worksheet for the Connecticut Child Support and Arrearage Guidelines (form CCSG-1), filled in with the 2026 guidelines’ instructions.

The worksheet is court form JD-FM-220, and its instructions are in the 2026 guidelines. Cases with more than two parents use form CCSG-1A.