South Dakota Child Support Calculator

It depends on both parents’ income after taxes, the number of children, and how many nights the children spend with each parent. For example, if you earn $4,333 a month before taxes, the other parent earns $3,000, and the children live mostly with the other parent, you would pay about $660 a month for one child or $976 for two.

To build the table, we turn weekly pay into monthly pay (× 52 ÷ 12) and subtract income tax (figured as if each parent were single), Social Security, and Medicare, as the calculator above does. The table assumes no retirement contributions or other support orders. At the lowest incomes, the schedule’s low-income rows keep the amount down. South Dakota’s schedule of support for both parents together is in SDCL 25-7-6.2.

South Dakota uses an income shares formula based on net income (income after taxes). It adds both parents’ monthly net incomes, looks up the schedule amount for that total, and has the parent with less time pay their share. Child care and health insurance are split separately.

1. Find each parent’s gross income from all sources, under SDCL 25-7-6.3.
2. Subtract the allowed deductions to get net income: income tax figured as if the parent were single (instead of the amount actually withheld), Social Security and Medicare, retirement contributions up to 10% of gross income, work expenses your employer doesn’t repay, and support paid under other orders, under SDCL 25-7-6.7.
3. Add the two net incomes and look up the schedule amount.
4. Split it by income share. The paying parent’s share becomes the support order, unless the low-income rule gives a lower amount.
5. Split child care and health insurance, and apply any parenting-time credit the judge grants.

Example

One parent earns $4,000 a month before taxes and the other $2,000. After taxes, their net incomes are about $3,394 and $1,780, or $5,174 together. The schedule amount for one child is $1,000. The higher earner has 66% of the net income, so with fewer than six nights a month, they pay about $660 a month.

Yes, and it can change well before 50/50. Once the paying parent has the children six or more nights a month, a judge can lower support for those nights. Once the children spend at least 180 nights a year in each home, a judge can use a shared parenting formula that gives each parent credit for their time. For example, with one child and gross pay of $4,000 and $2,000 a month, the higher earner pays $660 a month before any reduction for their nights, about $250 with the shared parenting formula at 180 nights a year, and about $240 at equal time.

• Six or more nights a month: a judge can lower support by 38% to 66% of the daily support amount for each of those nights, under SDCL 25-7-6.14. The paying parent has to show the extra costs of that time, and has to pay back the reduction if they don’t actually use the time. The reduction can’t be more than the shared parenting credit below would give. The calculator above leaves this reduction out.
• 180 nights or more in each home: to qualify, the parents need a detailed parenting plan and must share the children’s expenses. The schedule amount is multiplied by 1.5. Each parent owes their income share of that amount for the nights the children spend with the other parent, and the parent who owes more pays the difference, under SDCL 25-7-6.27. The judge won’t use this formula if it would seriously lower the children’s standard of living.

A night counts when the child sleeps at that parent’s home or with that parent, under SDCL 25-7-6.28.

A judge can have the parents share the reasonable cost of child care a parent needs in order to work, look for work, or get job training or education. When the parent the children live with can claim the federal child care tax credit, the judge can count that credit as 25% of the cost.

For example, if child care costs $600 a month and you have two thirds of the combined net income, your share is $400. See SDCL 25-7-6.18.

Every South Dakota order covers the children’s health care. A parent must provide insurance if they can get it at a reasonable cost, and the parents split the children’s part of the premium by income. Medical costs that insurance doesn’t cover, above $250 per child each year, are split the same way.

• Reasonable cost: insurance is reasonable in cost when the children’s part of the premium is no more than 8% of the parent’s net income, after subtracting the other parent’s share. If a parent can get insurance at that cost, the children being on Medicaid or CHIP doesn’t excuse the parent from providing it.
• Uncovered bills: the parent the children mainly live with pays the first $250 a year for each child. Medical, dental, vision, orthodontic, and counseling costs above that are split by each parent’s share.

See SDCL 25-7-6.16.

If the children live with you and you get TANF (cash assistance), food stamps (SNAP), Medicaid, or child care assistance, you have to help the Division of Child Support get support from the other parent. For example, you name the other parent and go to paternity tests and court dates. You are excused if helping would put you or your children at risk. While you get TANF, the state keeps the support it collects, up to the assistance it has paid you, and passes on only the rest.

• If you don’t help: your benefits can end, according to the Division of Child Support’s parent FAQ. To be excused because of a risk of harm, ask your benefits specialist; the state calls this “good cause.”
• Food stamps: helping is a condition of SNAP for the parent the children live with, under SDCL 28-12-4.
• Support collected: while you get TANF, the state keeps support up to the assistance not yet repaid, and only the amount above that goes to your family, under ARSD 67:18:01:25.

The South Dakota child support guide covers how this works.

South Dakota’s schedule has low-income rows, set so the paying parent keeps $871 a month to live on. If the paying parent’s own income falls in those rows, they pay whichever is lower: the amount for their own income, or their share of the amount for both parents’ combined income.

• Example: a paying parent with net income of $1,000 a month, with the other parent at $4,000, has a 20% share of $985 for one child, about $197. The schedule amount for $1,000 alone is $129, so they pay $129, under SDCL 25-7-6.2.
• Earning capacity: the law assumes a parent can earn at least the state minimum wage for 1,820 hours a year (35 hours a week), unless shown otherwise, under SDCL 25-7-6.4. A judge can count income a parent could earn if they earn less than they could or have no job, but not for a parent sentenced to more than 180 days in jail or prison or unable to work because of a disability, under SDCL 25-7-6.26.

The schedule stops at $30,000 a month in combined net income. Above that, the judge decides the amount based on the children’s needs and standard of living.

At $30,000 the schedule amount is $3,651 a month for one child, $5,286 for two, and $6,062 for three. See SDCL 25-7-6.9.

Yes. If either parent gives a reason to use a different amount than the schedule, the judge must consider it. The judge can then change the amount after stating the specific reasons.

Reasons the statute lists include a new spouse’s income when the schedule causes hardship, a parent’s finances, the children’s education or health needs, agreements for extra support, other children a parent supports, a parent choosing not to work or to earn less, and who claims the children on taxes. If support, including child care and insurance, would take more than 50% of the paying parent’s net income, the law assumes it is a hardship. See SDCL 25-7-6.10.

Send the Division of Child Support a Petition for Modification. A referee (a hearing officer) holds a hearing, and a circuit court judge makes the decision. Any order entered before July 1, 2026, can be changed without showing that anything changed. Keep paying the current order until it changes.

• When: in the first three years after the order, you need to show a big change in your situation. After three years, you don’t, under SDCL 25-7A-22. Orders from before July 1, 2026, can be changed now without showing a change, under SDCL 25-7-6.13.
• How: send the Division of Child Support a Petition for Modification (DSS-SE-415). See the Division’s page on changing an order.

The South Dakota child support guide walks through each step.

Yes. The Division of Child Support publishes the Child Support Obligation Calculator. It figures net income from gross pay and handles cases where the children live mainly with one parent.

Use the Child Support Obligation Calculator when the children live mainly with one parent. For a shared parenting plan, use the Shared Parenting Child Support Obligation Worksheet. DCS explains how obligations are set.