As with legal custody, it is most often the case that both parents will have an obligation to cover their child’s expenses, usually in proportion to their incomes. That obligation is converted into child support most often through the use of an algorithm developed by the State of New Jersey known as the Child Support Guidelines. There are many factors that go into the calculation of child support through the Guidelines, including the income of the parents, the visitation schedule, costs for health insurance, costs for daycare, support obligations for children of only one of the parents, and numerous others. This can be difficult to navigate without a professional’s help.
There are also a number of expenses that are not part of the Child Support Guidelines, such as the costs for competitive sports or advanced-level dance or music lessons, unreimbursed medical expenses for the children, academic tutoring, and, as a whole other category, college costs. One way to avoid later conflict is to have a capable professional putting together your child support agreements who know how to make sure that as much guidance and clarity exists as to how unknown future expenses will be dealt with.
