General Instructions

A. Documentation

The party requesting a child support order or modification shall present to the court a completed worksheet, together with a completed Domestic Relations Affidavit (Appendix III). This information shall assist the court in confirming or adjusting the various amounts entered on the worksheet. The information required shall be attached to the application for support or motion to modify support.

A worksheet approved by the court shall be filed in every case where an order of child support is entered.

B. Applications

1. Rounding

   Calculations should be rounded to the nearest tenth for percentages.

   Calculations should be rounded to the nearest dollar in all instances.

   In using the Child Support Schedules for income amounts not shown, it may be necessary to round to the nearest basic child support obligation amounts.

2. Age

   In determining the age of a child, use the age on the child's nearest birthday.

3. Income Beyond the Child Support Schedule

   If the Combined Child Support Income exceeds the highest amount shown on the schedules, the court should exercise its discretion by considering what amount of child support should be set in addition to the highest amount on the Child Support Schedule. For the convenience of the parties, a formula is contained at the end of each child support schedule to compute the amount that is not set forth on the schedules. (See Appendix VIII, Example 2.)

4. More than Six Children

   If the parties share legal responsibility for more than six children, support should be based upon the established needs of the children and be greater than the amount of child support on the Six Child Families' Schedule.

5. Divided Residency Situations

   Divided Residency is when parents have two or more children and each parent has residency of one or more of the children.

   For Divided Residency, if each parent has primary residency of one or more children, a worksheet should be prepared for each family unit using the Child Support Schedule which corresponds with the total number of children of the parties living in each family unit. If the parties' children are covered by the same health insurance policy, the cost should be prorated based upon the number of children in each family unit. Upon completion of the two worksheets, the lower Net Parental Child Support Obligation is subtracted from the higher amount. The difference is the amount of child support the party having the higher obligation will pay to the party with the lower obligation. (See Appendix VIII, Example 1, Subsection D.2, Scenario 8.)

6. Multiple-Family Application

   The Multiple-Family Application may be used to adjust the child support obligation of the parent not having primary residency when that parent has legal financial responsibility for the support of other children who reside with that parent. The Multiple-Family Application only may be used by a parent not having primary residency when establishing an original order of child support or an increase in support is sought by the parent having primary residency. If using the Multiple-Family Application will result in a gross child support obligation (Line D.3) below the poverty level, the use of the Multiple-Family Application is discretionary.

   For the Multiple-Family Application, if the parent not having primary residency has children by another relationship who reside with him/her, use the Child Support Schedule representing the total number of children the parent not having primary residency is legally obligated to support to determine the basic child support obligation. (See Section IV, Specific Instructions for the Worksheet, subsection D.3; and Appendix VIII, Example 1, subsection D.2, scenarios 6 and 7.)

   If the wife of the parent not having primary residency or the parent not having primary residency herself is pregnant at the time of the motion to increase child support, the court shall complete two Child Support Worksheets, one with Multiple-Family Application including the unborn child, and one without the unborn child. The court shall then order that, until the birth of the child, the child support amount from the Child Support Worksheet (without a Multiple-Family Application based on the new child) will be utilized. Beginning with the first payment following the birth of the child, the child support amount from the Child Support Worksheet including the new child shall be utilized.

   In the instance of shared residency or divided residency, the Multiple-Family Application is available to either party in defense of a requested child support increase.

7. Shared Residency Situations

   Shared residency is the regular sharing of residential custody on an equal or nearly equal basis. To qualify for shared residency treatment, two components must exist. First, the blocks of time must be regular and equal or nearly equal rather than equal based on a nonprimary residency extended parenting time basis (i.e., summer visitation, holidays, etc.). Second, the parties must be sharing direct expenses of the child on an equal or nearly equal basis. Direct expenses include, but are not limited to, clothing and education expenses, but do not include food, transportation, housing or utilities.

   No shared residency treatment shall be ordered without the court having approved a plan for paying and sharing expenses. The court shall require that a detailed expense sharing payment plan be submitted by the party or parties requesting the shared residency treatment. Failure to adhere to the expense sharing plan may result in sanctions including, but not limited to, imposition of full child support and/or an order for payment of specific expenses.

   For Shared Residency, the support is calculated using one worksheet. The amount of the lower Net Parental Child Support Obligation (Line F.5) is subtracted from the higher amount and the difference is then multiplied by .50. The resulting amount is the child support the party having the higher obligation will pay to the party with the lower obligation.

8. Residence with a Third Party

   If the child is residing with a third party, the court shall order each of the parties to pay to the third party their respective amounts of child support as determined by the worksheet.

9. Interstate Pay Differential

   The cost of living may vary among states. The "Average Annual Pay by State and Industry" as reported by the United States Department of Labor Statistics can be used to compute a value for the interstate pay differential. Appendix IV provides instructions and an example. The adjusted monthly income figure is entered on Line A.1, Line B.1, or Line C.4, as appropriate. There will be a rebuttable presumption that the adjusted pay amount reflects the variance in average pay.

   The income of the parties will not be subject to an interstate pay differential if both parties live in Kansas or reside in the same metropolitan statistical area (MSA).