THE CHILD SUPPORT GUIDELINE

How Much Child Support?

The State of Vermont has adopted a guideline for child support that basically takes your income, the other parent's income, and the number of overnights the kids stay with each parent, and spits out a child support amount. There are some other factors as well, but those are the big ones.

 

How Does the Guideline Work?

The child support guideline is based on several statutory sections in Title 15. The calculation itself is quite complicated - and usually you do not need to know exactly how it works. You can use a web-based program used by the court, lawyers, and Office of Child Support here.

 

Deviations from the Guideline Amount

Whoever decides child support in your case will probably use the guideline, unless you or the other parent have an income that is too high for the guideline to calculate. If your family circumstances are unusual, there might be a "deviation" from the guideline amount.