How Child Support Is Calculated in Ohio

The schedule and worksheet

Whenever a court or child support enforcement agency (CSEA) sets or modifies support, it must calculate child support and cash medical support using the basic child support schedule, the applicable worksheet, and the rest of R.C. Chapter 3119, state the obligation as a monthly amount, and is not required to accept a worksheet prepared by a party (R.C. 3119.02).

• The schedule is created by rule by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, based on the parents’ combined annual income, with a self-sufficiency reserve (R.C. 3119.021(A)). The statutory table runs from a guideline income of $8,400 through $300,000 (R.C. 3119.021(B)(1)).
• Each parent’s income share is that parent’s annual income after allowable deductions and credits, as a percentage of both parents’ total (R.C. 3119.01(C)(11)).
• If combined income is above the schedule, support is set case by case considering the needs and standard of living of the children and parents, and the basic combined obligation may not be less than the amount at the top of the schedule unless the court or agency finds that unjust or inappropriate and journals its findings. If combined income is below the $8,400 floor, the minimum support rules apply (R.C. 3119.04).
• A parent’s obligation for a child for whom that parent is the residential parent and legal custodian is presumed spent on the child; the other parent’s obligation becomes the order. With split custody of different children, the obligations are offset (R.C. 3119.07).

What counts as income

For a parent employed to full capacity, income is gross income. For a parent who is unemployed or underemployed, it is gross income plus potential income (R.C. 3119.01(C)(10)). Gross income includes earned and unearned income from all sources, taxable or not, with listed exclusions such as means-tested benefits and child support received for other children (R.C. 3119.01(C)(13)).

• Overtime and bonuses. The court or agency includes the lesser of the three-year yearly average of overtime, commissions, and bonuses or the total received in the prior year (R.C. 3119.05(D)).
• A new spouse’s income is not included (R.C. 3119.05(E)).
• Verification. Current and past income must be verified electronically or with documents such as paystubs, employer statements, and tax returns with all schedules (R.C. 3119.05(A)).

Potential income is imputed only for a parent the court or agency finds voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, using criteria that include prior work, education, disabilities, local job availability and wages, and whether there is evidence the parent can earn that income (R.C. 3119.01(C)(18)). Unless it would be unjust or inappropriate, income may not be imputed in situations listed in R.C. 3119.05(I), such as a parent who has proven continuous and diligent efforts without success to find work, and it may not be imputed to an incarcerated parent (R.C. 3119.05(J)).

Parenting time and child care

Except as R.C. 3119.051 otherwise provides, the court or agency must reduce the annual individual support obligation by 10 percent when a court has issued or is issuing a court-ordered parenting time order that equals or exceeds 90 overnights per year. The reduction may be in addition to other deviations. At the obligee’s request, the court may remove the adjustment if the obligor, without just cause, has failed to exercise court-ordered parenting time (R.C. 3119.051).

Parents share work-related child care costs by income share, within the limits in R.C. 3119.05(P), including that the cost must be verifiable and may not exceed the maximum statewide average cost estimate.

Deviations and the minimum order

A court may order an amount different from the schedule and worksheet only if, after considering the factors in R.C. 3119.23, it finds the calculated amount unjust or inappropriate and not in the child’s best interest. It must journal the calculated amount, that determination, and supporting findings of fact (R.C. 3119.22). The factors include special needs of the child, extended parenting time or extraordinary parenting time costs, disparity in income between households, and significant in-kind contributions. Shared parenting orders follow a parallel rule in R.C. 3119.24.

The minimum order is $80 a month for all children under the order, though the court or agency may order less, or nothing, in appropriate circumstances such as a medically verified disability (R.C. 3119.06).

Changing support

• The 10 percent test. When a parent asks the court to modify support, the court recalculates it. If the new amount is more than 10 percent greater or more than 10 percent less than the existing order, that difference is considered a change of circumstance substantial enough to require a modification (R.C. 3119.79(A)).
• Court motion. Form 28 (Juvenile Form 7), Motion for Change of Child Support, Medical Support, Tax Exemption, or Other Child-Related Expenses (amended September 21, 2020). Its instructions say an Affidavit 1 and a Request for Service (Form 31) must be filed with it.
• Agency review. When an application for CSEA services under Title IV-D has been filed, the agency may review an order periodically or at a parent’s request. It gives at least 30 days’ notice, except as R.C. 3119.771 provides, and asks each parent for tax returns, six months of pay stubs, and health insurance information (R.C. 3119.60). For a court order, it sends a revised amount, and a parent has 14 days after notice to request an administrative hearing or, in some situations, a court hearing (R.C. 3119.63).
• Timing. A court may modify support payments that come due after notice of a petition to modify has been given to the other party (R.C. 3119.84).

How long support lasts

A court child support order continues past the child’s 18th birthday only if the child is disabled and incapable of self-support under an order under R.C. 3109.20 or 3119.11, the parents agreed to it in a separation agreement incorporated into a divorce or dissolution decree, or the child continuously attends an accredited high school full time on and after turning 18 (R.C. 3119.86(A)).

Primary sources

Rules and forms change. Check the current version at the source before you file.

• R.C. Chapter 3119, calculation of child support
• R.C. 3119.01, definitions
• R.C. 3119.02, calculation
• R.C. 3119.021, basic schedule
• R.C. 3119.04, incomes above or below the schedule
• R.C. 3119.05, computation rules
• R.C. 3119.051, parenting time adjustment
• R.C. 3119.06, minimum order
• R.C. 3119.07, who pays
• R.C. 3119.22 and 3119.23, deviation
• R.C. 3119.24, shared parenting
• R.C. 3119.60 and 3119.63, agency reviews
• R.C. 3119.79, modification
• R.C. 3119.84, retroactivity
• R.C. 3119.86, duration
• ODJFS Office of Child Support
• Uniform Domestic Relations Form 28 (Juvenile Form 7), Motion for Change of Child Support, Medical Support, Tax Exemption, or Other Child-Related Expenses