Child Support | What expenses are covered by child support?

A very typical question that may be raised by a parent is whether the payor of child support is obligated to pay a certain percentage of extraordinary expenses - such as for school clothing, school activities, dance lessons, tutorial services, etc. Michigan operates under the Michigan Child Support Formula, recently revised effective October 2008. It's important for both parents to have a clear understanding - even before the final divorce is entered.

Here's the question in short form: What does a non-custodial parent (payor of child support) have to pay in addition to child support for the child's needs? School clothes? Dance lessons? Hockey? Football (if the school isn't picking up the tab and the children must pay to participate)?

I've obtained permission from two lawyers to present a case to you: a question raised on a listserv where family law lawyers exchange information and expertise (like a discussion board) and the answer.

Karen Valvo, a family law lawyer in Ann Arbor, Michigan posed this issue:

"Child Support Payor has children 33% of overnights per year and pays both child support and spousal support to Child Support Recipient.  The parties disagree about what child support covers and what should be considered “extra expenses”, which the parties will agree to pay proportionately.  All agree child support covers mortgage, utilities, transportation, food and that each party will pay these expenses for children when children are with him/her.  Discrete extra expenses also fairly obvious – a sports camp, music lessons.  They disagree about routine clothing purchases for the children, day to day school lunches, school supplied, backpacks, field trip expenses, discretionary purchases for the benefit of the (teen-aged) children. 
 
"I can’t find statutory or case law descriptions about what child support “exactly” covers, given the shared economic responsibility formula, after an admittedly cursory reading of the Support Manual, MI Family Law ICLE book and quick on-line reviews.  Thank you for your thoughts."

It's important to note that Michigan recently revised its child support formula. The "shared economic responsibility" formula previously used, which allowed a 50% abatement if a parent exercised more than 128 overnights per year, is out. The new formula makes the child support more fairly reflect the parents' shared expenses of raising the child and is called " universal parenting time offset." You can read more about this in the 2008 Supplement linked below.

There are a few child support gurus in Michigan, Kent Weichmann and Craig Ross among them. Both attorneys practice in Ann Arbor and were formerly with the Washtenaw County Friend of the Court. Kent kindly supplied this response to Karen's question:

"Karen, you're correct that the universal parenting time offset may require a bit of a paradigm shift.  Child support is based on the marginal cost of children in intact families and theoretically includes almost all expenditures on children.  Expenses for child care are handled separately, because separated families often incur a vastly greater expense than the average intact family, and extraordinary medical expenses are handled separately because by definition they are extra-ordinary.  In the traditional sole custody situation the non-custodial parent paid 100% of their share of child support, and would only need to supplement it for major outside expenses, such as private schooling. 

"The universal parenting time offset provides that in every case each parent is effectively paying the other parent support, so the mere payment of support shouldn't absolve either parent of responsibility for the children's expenses.  In a 50/50 parenting schedule, each parent should be equally responsible for any out of pocket expenses for the children, such as clothing, school expenditures, etc., and arguably on a ratio based on the parties' relative incomes.  This is kind of ironic, since one of the goals of a child support formula is getting away from arguments about who spent what on the children.

"In a 33/66 split, the payer isn't getting much of a discount on their child support from the parenting time offset.  If you are dealing with a case where spousal support has been ordered there is usually a significant income disparity, and the decrease in child support due to the PTO is usually offset by an increase in the spousal support.  In other words, the economics are really much like the old sole custody model.  Try running child and spousal support under a 0% parenting time arrangement and compare it to the result in your 33% scenario.  They might be fairly close, which would imply that the primary custodian should be responsible for the children's expenses under a fairly broad definition, certainly including clothing, school lunches and school supplies.  Camps and private lessons might be extra, but the parents should agree on the expenditures before they are incurred.

"I don't think there is a clear line where the 50/50 type sharing stops and the sole custody approach takes over. It would be a lot easier to write a child support formula if families would be considerate enough to stick to a few basic patterns."

Kent Weichmann fn1

Craig Ross has developed a computer program that calculates child support according to the Michigan Child Support Guidelines. His program has additional features such as a calculator for spousal support (not used by all family courts in Michigan) and a program to calculate present value of a defined benefit pension plan. This program is reasonably priced and easy to use. You may read more about it and purchase it on the Marginsoft web site. http://marginsoft.com

Additional specific information about Michigan child support issues will be found in these two documents:

2004 Michigan Child Support Manual 
2008 Michigan Child Support Manual Supplement

fn 1:  A solo practitioner, Kent L. Weichmann is a domestic relations mediator and arbitrator. He worked for 18 years at the Washtenaw County Friend of the Court, including 10 years as the Friend of the Court. Mr. Weichmann was a member of the committee that formulated the original Michigan Child Support Formula in the early 1980s and has contributed to its 2004 and 2008 revisions. Now serving his sixth term on the State Bar of Michigan's Family Law Section Council, he is a member of its Amicus Curiae, Court Rules, and Family Support Committees and chairperson of the Legislative Committee.