Custody

As part of the legal decision-making and parenting time hearing, the judge will usually determine how much money the other parent will pay to support your child. You may also get temporary child support as a part of a temporary order. A court’s decision for joint legal decision-making does not lessen the responsibility of either parent to provide for the support of the child.¹ The judge almost always uses guidelines that are set in a child support obligation worksheet to determine how much support you will receive. The judge may consider:

• gross income of parents;
• the number of children;
• extra education expenses; and
• medical/dental/vision insurance costs.

If you would like to see all of the factors that go into determining support, you can see the Arizona Child Support Guidelines adopted by the Arizona Supreme Court.

The guidelines the judge uses involve a very complex formula, but basically the judge looks at both parents’ incomes, your child’s needs and how much time your child spends with each parent.² To get a basic idea of how much support you may receive, you can use the following online child support calculator. Remember this is a rough estimate and that only the judge can determine how much support you will actually receive.

¹ A.R.S. § 25-403.09
² A.R.S. § 25-320(D)