Louisiana Child Support Calculator

It depends on both parents’ monthly gross income (pay before taxes) 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 $681 a month, or $1,034 for two children. Child care, health insurance, and large medical bills are added on top.

To build the table, we convert weekly pay to monthly pay (× 52 ÷ 12). The amounts assume the paying parent pays no support under an earlier order for other children or a former spouse. With about equal time, or more than 73 days a year under a joint custody order, support can be lower (see the 50/50 section below). Louisiana’s schedule, which lists basic support for both parents together, is in R.S. 9:315.19.

Louisiana uses an income shares formula. It adds both parents’ monthly gross incomes and looks up the basic support for that income in the state’s schedule. Each parent pays a share based on their part of the income.

The rules are in R.S. 9:315 and the sections after it:

1. Find each parent’s gross income from all sources. Child support received and public assistance don’t count.
2. Subtract support paid under earlier orders for other children or a former spouse.
3. Add the two incomes and look up the basic support for that income and the number of children.
4. Add child care, health insurance, and large medical bills.
5. Split the total by each parent’s share of the income. When the children have one main home, the other parent pays their share (Worksheet A). With shared custody, Worksheet B applies.

Example

One parent earns $3,000 a month and the other $2,000, so their combined income is $5,000. The basic support for one child at that income is $933 for both parents together. The higher earner has 60% of the income, so with the child living mostly with the other parent, they pay about $560 a month, under R.S. 9:315.8.

Yes. Louisiana’s formula changes only when parents have about equal time (shared custody). With one child and gross pay of $3,000 and $2,000 a month, the higher earner then pays about $140 a month instead of $560. With less time than that, under a joint custody order, a judge can lower support once the paying parent has the children more than 73 days a year (about 20% of the time). The law doesn’t say by how much.

• Shared custody (about equal time): Louisiana raises the basic support by half to cover two homes and splits it by each parent’s share of the income. Each parent’s share is then multiplied by the time the children spend with the other parent. The parent who owes more pays the difference, but never more than they would with one main home. This formula applies when a custody order or plan provides for shared custody, or a judge finds that the parents share custody, under R.S. 9:315.9.
• More than 73 days: under a joint custody order without equal time, a judge can give the paying parent a credit once they have the children more than 73 days a year. A day is at least four hours. The judge decides the amount, and the parent asking for the credit must prove it is justified, under R.S. 9:315.8(E).

The calculator above uses the shared custody formula when you choose 50/50. It leaves out the credit for more than 73 days, because the judge decides whether to give it and how much.

Child care costs are added to the basic support and split by each parent’s share of the income. Louisiana first subtracts the federal child care tax credit, so the parents share only the cost left after the credit.

Child care while a parent is in job training or school can also be added, unless paying for it would be too hard on the paying parent. See R.S. 9:315.3. The official calculator includes child care.

A judge can order either parent to insure the children. The cost of insuring the children is added to the basic support and split by each parent’s share of the income. The parent who pays the premium gets credit for it.

• Who covers the children: the judge looks at each parent’s health plans, job, and income. When DCFS handles the case, the order must provide medical support, under R.S. 9:315.4.
• Large medical bills: costs insurance doesn’t pay, above $250 per child per year, can be added to the support and split by each parent’s share of the income, under R.S. 9:315.5.
• Smaller bills with shared custody: each parent pays their share of uninsured costs under $250, under R.S. 9:315.9.

The official calculator includes these costs.

If the children live with you and you get FITAP (Louisiana’s cash assistance), you have to help the child support program get support from the other parent, for example by naming them and helping prove who the father is. The support collected pays the state back for your FITAP instead of coming to you. Food stamps (SNAP) don’t have this rule in Louisiana.

• FITAP: if you refuse to help without a good reason, such as a risk of harm to you or your children, your FITAP is denied or stopped, under Louisiana Administrative Code Title 67, Part III.
• What you keep: while you get FITAP, Louisiana keeps the support collected to pay back the assistance. It sends you only what is collected beyond that.
• Food stamps (SNAP): USDA lists Louisiana as a state that doesn’t require help with child support for SNAP.

The Louisiana child support guide covers working with the child support program.

The amounts in the schedule’s lower rows already leave a low-income paying parent some money to live on. When the parents earn less than $1,050 a month together, the schedule has no amount. A judge then decides support based on each parent’s actual income and ability to pay.

• Built into the schedule: the amount left for a low-income parent to live on (a self-sufficiency reserve) is part of the amounts in R.S. 9:315.19, so no separate step applies.
• Combined income under $1,050: a judge looks at what each parent actually earns, what they are able to earn, and other evidence, under R.S. 9:315.13(A). Louisiana has had no minimum order since January 1, 2024, when Act 24 of 2023 repealed the old $100 minimum.
• Earning less by choice: a judge can count what a parent could earn, unless the parent can’t work or is caring for the parents’ child under age five. Being in jail or prison doesn’t count as choosing not to work, under R.S. 9:315.11.

No. When the parents earn more than $50,000 a month together, a judge decides the basic support. It can’t be less than the schedule’s top amount ($3,737 a month for one child, for both parents together).

The judge considers what is best for the child and each parent’s situation. The judge can also put part of the support in a trust for the child’s education or medical needs, under R.S. 9:315.13(C).

Yes. Courts start from the amount the guidelines give. A judge can order a different amount when that amount wouldn’t be best for the child or would be unfair to the parents, and must give specific reasons.

Reasons the law lists include other children living in a parent’s home, unusually high medical costs, large debts the parents took on together during the marriage, a parent’s disability, and a parent who is a minor. The judge must state what the guideline amount would have been. See R.S. 9:315.1.

Ask the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to review your order, or ask the court to change it. A court changes support after a big change in your situation that is expected to last. Keep following the current order until it changes.

• Through DCFS: if your case is with DCFS, you can ask for a review. Your order qualifies if it is more than three years old, the guidelines would change it by at least 25%, or your situation has changed a lot.
• Through the court: in DCFS cases, if the guidelines would change the amount by 25% or more, that counts as a big enough change, under R.S. 9:311.

The Louisiana child support guide walks through each step.

Yes. DCFS runs the Louisiana Child Support Estimator. It uses the same two worksheets (Worksheet A and Worksheet B) that Louisiana law sets out.

The Louisiana Child Support Estimator adds the deductions and costs this page leaves out. Worksheet A is for one main home and Worksheet B is for shared custody.