What is the new child support law for 2026 in California?

What the law says

Family Code section 17400(d)(2), in the version that “shall become operative January 1, 2026,” says that if there is sufficient information to determine actual income, the agency “shall use actual income as the basis of the proposed support obligation, unless” it has sufficient information that earning capacity is greater than actual income and sufficient evidence to establish it under section 4058(b). If actual income is unknown and earning capacity can be established, the agency must use earning capacity, and the complaint must list the steps the agency first took to find actual income, including that “At least three attempts to contact the support obligor shall be made.” The replaced version presumed full-time minimum wage when income was unknown.

Under the new section 17430(b), when the proposed amount is based on earning capacity, the agency must file a motion for judgment, and at that hearing “the court shall permit the appearance and participation of the defendant and the other parent in the hearing, including, but not limited to, sworn testimony and the introduction of evidence, regardless of whether the defendant has filed an answer to the complaint.” Under the new section 17432(g)(1), a motion to set aside a default order based on presumed income or earning capacity can be filed “within two years of the local child support agency’s first collection of money through an earnings assignment order or an order or notice to withhold income for child support.” The replaced version allowed one year. Section 17432.5: “Forms adopted pursuant to this section shall have an effective date of January 1, 2026.”

One number also moved: the low-income adjustment in section 4055(b)(7) is tied to full-time state minimum wage, and the Department of Industrial Relations says “The minimum wage in California, effective January 1, 2026, is $16.90/hour for all employers.” By our own arithmetic, not a figure published in the statute or by the courts, $16.90 an hour at 40 hours a week for 52 weeks is about $2,929 a month in gross pay; the statute compares that amount with the paying parent’s net disposable income.

• Family Code sections 17400 to 17432.5, both versions of each section (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov)
• Family Code section 4055 (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov)
• California Department of Industrial Relations: minimum wage (dir.ca.gov)

What to do next

For how the 2024 formula changes work, see how California child support is calculated. If your order came from an agency default based on presumed income or earning capacity, find the date the agency first collected money through an earnings assignment or income withholding order, because the two-year window runs from that collection; under section 17432(g)(1), the agency must tell both parents in writing when that first collection comes in.

• How is child support calculated in California?
• Can a child support order entered by default be changed?
• Free California child support calculator
• California child support guide