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The Kansas Supreme Court
301 SW 10th Avenue
Topeka Kansas 66612-1507

Office of Judicial Administration
Telephone:  785.296.2256
Fax:  785.296.7076
Email: info@kscourts.org

Appellate Clerk's Office
Telephone:  785.296.3229
Fax:  785.296.1028
Email: appellateclerk@kscourts.org

Endnotes

1. The original child support guidelines, promulgated pursuant to K.S.A. 20-165 by the Supreme Court on October 1, 1987, were proposed by the Kansas Commission on Child Support following a two-year study. See Kansas Commission on Child Support, "Proposed Kansas Child Support Guidelines," 1987 (available in Kansas Supreme Court Law Library, Topeka, Kansas). The report includes a detailed background discussion, including the policy criteria upon which the original guidelines were based.

The Child Support Guidelines Advisory Committee was initially appointed by the Supreme Court on April 7, 1989, to review the implementation of the statewide child support guidelines, solicit public input regarding the guidelines, and make recommendations to address the new federal mandates of the Family Support Act of 1988. The committee has been convened periodically to conduct a comprehensive review of the guidelines and to update the economic data. The current Advisory Committee's members are:

  Date First Appointed
Hon. Nancy Parrish (Chair), Topeka
District Court Judge, 3rd Judicial District		 07/01/97
Hon. Thomas E. Foster, Olathe
District Court Judge, 10th Judicial District		 05/24/01
Hon. Thomas H. Graber, Wellington
District Court Judge, 30th Judicial District		 04/07/89
John T. Bird, Hays
Attorney 		04/07/89
Roy F. Brungardt, Hays
Certified Public Accountant		 07/06/93
Professor Linda Elrod, Topeka
Washburn University School of Law		 04/07/89
Charles F. Harris, Wichita
Attorney 		04/07/89
Dave Gregory, Wichita
Parent		 05/24/01
Gary Pomeroy, Lawrence
Attorney, Child Support Enforcement		 07/01/05
Sherri Loveland, Lawrence
Attorney 		04/07/89
Thomas C. Owens, Overland Park
Attorney 		04/07/89
Sen. Greta H. Goodwin, Winfield
State Senator, 32nd District		 05/24/01
Rep. Lana Gordon, Topeka
State Representative, 52nd District		 12/27/06
Larry Rute, Topeka
Associates in Dispute Resolution		 04/07/89

Past members of the Advisory Committee were:

  Date First Appointed
Hon. Herbert W. Walton (Chairman), Olathe
Administrative Judge, Retired, 10th Judicial District		 04/07/89-06/07/99
Allen B. Angst, Abilene
Attorney, Shared Primary Residency Parent		 07/06/93-06/30/00
William Coffee, Olathe
District Court Trustee 		07/01/97-06/30/01
Jamie Corkhill, Topeka
Child Support Enforcement 		09/01/96-06/30/00
Jackie Fletcher, Kansas City
United Way 		07/06/93-06/30/00
James L. Francisco, Wichita
State Senator, 26th District 		04/07/89-06/30/92
Sheila Hochhauser, Manhattan
State Representative, 67th District 		07/01/96-06/30/00
Dr. Woody Houseman, Topeka
Principal, Highland Park South Elementary 		4/07/89-06/30/96
James R. Johnston, Wichita
Nonprimary Residency Parent 		02/04/98-06/30/00
David Kerr, Hutchinson
State Senator, 34th District 		04/07/92-06/30/96
Candace Lattin, Pratt
Attorney, Child Support Enforcement		 05/24/01 - 10/01/05
Ward Loyd, Garden City
State Representative, 123rd District		 05/24/01- 12/27/06
Nancy K. Meacham, Wichita
Attorney, Primary Residency Parent 		06/30/92-06/30/02
Hon. Paul E. Miller, Manhattan
District Judge, 21st Judicial District 		04/07/89-06/30/98
Mike O'Neal, Hutchinson
State Representative, 104th District 		07/19/95-06/30/99
Mark Parkinson, Olathe
State Senator, 23rd District 		07/09/95-06/30/00
Richard Staub, Topeka
Santa Fe General Offices 		04/07/89-06/30/96
Joan Wagnon, Topeka
State Representative, 55th District 		04/07/89-06/30/01
 

Members of the original Kansas Commission on Child Support, appointed in December 1984 by then-Governor John Carlin:

Ms. Lynn Barclay
Kansas Children's Service League

Hon. James G. Beasley
District Court Judge, Wichita

Ms. Peggy Browning
Commission on Equal Status of Women, Wichita

Hon. James P. Buchele
District Court Judge, Topeka

Professor Linda Elrod, Vice-Chairman
Washburn Law School

Hon. Robert G. Frey
State Senator, 125th District

Dr. Woody Houseman
Topeka

Hon. Tracy D. Klinginsmith
District Court Judge, Holton

Ms. Evelyn Leat
Kansas City

Mr. David Litwin
Director of Taxation
Kansas Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Ms. Nancy Meacham
Wichita

Hon. Vic Miller
Topeka

Ms. Diane Nusbaum
District Court Administrator, Junction City

Mr. Larry Rute
Kansas Legal Services, Inc.

Mr. John Schneider
Social & Rehabilitation Services
Income Maintenance & Medical Services

Dr. Howard Schwartz
Judicial Administrator

Mr. Richard Staub
Santa Fe Railway Company

Hon. Robert T. Stephan
Attorney General

Hon. Joan Wagnon
State Representative, 55th District

Hon. Herbert W. Walton, Chairman
District Court Judge, Olathe

Ms. Aileen Whitfill
Policy & Program Development
Social & Rehabilitation Services

2. See Linda Henry Elrod, Kansas Child Support Guidelines: An Elusive Search for Fairness in Support Orders, 27 WASHBURN. L. J. 104, 120-25 (1987). Expenditures per child are assumed to increase with increases in parents' combined income, decrease per child as the total number of children in the family increases, and increase as the child grows older.

  • William T. Terrell, Ph.D., is a consultant in private practice. Prior to his retirement, he served as an Associate Professor of Economics at Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas. For an explanation of Dr. Terrell's economic model, see W.T. Terrell, "Expenditures on Children for Child Support: Economist as Policy Advisor" (paper presented to the Eastern Economic Association at Baltimore, Maryland, March 1989) (available in Kansas Supreme Court Law Library, Topeka, Kansas). See also Kansas Commission on Child Support, supra note 1, at 13-15.
  • At the time of the review, Ann Coulson, Ph.D., held a position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas. The following sources were used to update the model: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey Series: Interview Survey, 1986-87 (1989); U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Household After-Tax Income: 1986, ser. P-23, No. 157 (1989); U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Updated Estimates of the Cost of Raising a Child, Family Economics Review, No. 2 (May 1989). See Letter from Dr. Ann Coulson to Hon. Herbert Walton, February 21, 1990, at 1, 3 (available in Kansas Supreme Court Law Library, Topeka, Kansas).

    Adjustments were made to the national expenditure data to avoid double-counting certain expenditures, such as health care, health insurance, and child care services. Because social security was considered [as] a tax in the initial stage of the development of the schedule, the category of social security and pension plan contributions was also excluded so that the expenditure would not be counted twice. Additionally, the Committee excluded a number of expenditures considered to be discretionary or not attributable to children. Expenditures thus excluded were for alcoholic beverages, tobacco, vacation homes, boarding costs for children away at school, and cash contributions.
  • See Child Support Guidelines Committee Report dated November 1993. Ann Coulson, Ph.D. prepared a description of the derivation of the 1993 child support schedules.
  • The 2002 support schedule relies upon three data sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey, 1999-2000 (integrated diary and interview components); United States Department of Agriculture, Mark Lino, Ph.D., Expenditures on Children by Families: 2001 Annual Report; United States Department of Health and Human Services, The 2002 HHS Poverty Guidelines, 67 (31) FED. REGISTER, (Feb. 14, 2002).
  • Jodi Messer Pelkowski, Ph.D., is an Associtate Professor of Economics and a Barton Fellow at the Barton School of Business, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas.
  • See Terrell, supra note 3, at 7; Letter from Dr. Ann Coulson to Hon. Herbert Walton, February 21, 1990, supra note 4, at 2.
  • Consumption spending means household outlays for consumer goods and services as opposed to the purchase of assets or savings accounts.
  • This reduction involves subtracting the age 16-18 child's share of a total family burden at two points on the equation that relates average spending per the age 16-18 child to gross family income. Once the two lower points are determined, then the entire equation is reduced in order to compute the support schedules. For example, the one child aged 16-18 family calls for a reduction of $182 at the poverty level income of $1,300. Hence, the poverty level average spending of $430 becomes the schedule entry of $248. Similarly, at an income of $14,500 per month, average spending of $2,322 per child declines by $336 to the support amount of $1,986 (not shown in the schedule). The tabled values derive from an equation that passes through these two diminished values.
  • The terms "custodial" and "noncustodial" have been removed from the guidelines and replaced with the terms "having primary residency" and "not having primary residency." This brings the Kansas Child Support Guidelines into conformity with K.S.A. 60-1610 et seq.

    [History: Order No. 59 effective October 1, 1987; Order No. 70 effective October 13, 1989; Order No. 75 effective April 1, 1990; Order No. 83 effective February 6, 1993; Order No. 90 effective August 1, 1994; Order No. 107 effective January 1, 1996; Order No. 128 effective October 1, 1998; Order No. 180 effective January 1, 2004; Order No. 216 effective January 1, 2008.]

    Last Updated: January 3, 2008