How Child Support Is Calculated in Louisiana

By Donald J. Melancon, Attorney at Law · Last reviewed October 11, 2026

Louisiana child support is not a number a judge picks. It comes from a formula in La. R.S. 9:315 and the sections that follow: combine both parents’ incomes, read a basic amount off a published schedule, add specific child-related expenses, and divide the total in proportion to what each parent earns. The result is presumed correct, and a court that departs from it has to say why on the record. This article walks through the formula, the two worksheets, how support is paid, and how a case moves through the courts in Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard Parish.

Louisiana uses the income-shares model

The guidelines rest on an idea stated in R.S. 9:315: children are entitled to share in the current income of both parents, and support should approximate what the parents would have spent on the children had the household stayed together. Each parent’s share of the combined income determines that parent’s share of the award. The parent who has the children most of the time is treated as spending that share directly; the other parent pays his or her share to the domiciliary parent.

Step one: what counts as income

The calculation starts with each parent’s monthly gross income, defined broadly in R.S. 9:315(C): salary, wages, commissions, bonuses, dividends, severance, pensions, interest, trust income, recurring gifts, capital gains, Social Security, workers’ compensation, unemployment and disability benefits, and spousal support received under a prior obligation. For a self-employed parent, it is gross receipts minus ordinary and necessary business expenses, and the court can disallow deductions it finds inappropriate. Excluded are child support received for other children, public assistance, and, in the court’s discretion, extraordinary overtime. A new spouse’s income is generally not counted.

Each parent files a verified income statement with pay stubs and the most recent federal tax return; a business owner must produce considerably more. Gross income becomes adjusted gross income after subtracting support actually paid under a prior order. If a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, R.S. 9:315.11 directs the court to use earning potential instead, looking at work history, skills, education, age, health, the local job market, and the parent’s record of seeking work. Exceptions cover a parent who is incapacitated, caring for a child of the parties under age five, caring for a disabled child, or unemployed as a direct result of incarceration.

Step two: the schedule

Once both adjusted gross incomes are combined, R.S. 9:315.2 sends the court to the schedule in R.S. 9:315.19: rows for combined adjusted monthly gross income, columns for one through six children, and a basic child support obligation at each intersection. The current table, effective January 1, 2025, runs from a combined income of $1,050 a month to a ceiling of $50,000 a month.

A worked example: one parent earns $4,000 a month, the other $2,000, with one child. Combined income is $6,000, and the schedule gives a basic obligation of $1,054. The higher earner has two-thirds of the combined income, so that parent’s share is about $703 before add-ons.

Under R.S. 9:315.13, if combined income falls below the lowest row, the court sets support from actual earnings and ability to pay. If it exceeds the top of the schedule, the court uses its discretion based on the child’s needs and the parents’ circumstances, but the award cannot be less than the highest scheduled amount.

Step three: the add-ons

The schedule amount is only the base. Four categories are added on top and split in the same income proportions:

• Net child care costs (R.S. 9:315.3): work-related or job-search child care, reduced by the federal child care credit.
• Health insurance premiums (R.S. 9:315.4): the actual cost of covering the child, not the whole family premium.
• Extraordinary medical expenses (R.S. 9:315.5): unreimbursed medical costs above $250 per child per calendar year. Anything under that threshold is built into the schedule.
• Other extraordinary expenses (R.S. 9:315.6): tuition and fees for a private or special school that meets the child’s particular needs, transportation between the parents’ homes, and enrichment such as camps, lessons, and school activities. These are added only by agreement or court order.

A parent who pays one of these directly, such as a premium deducted from a paycheck, gets a credit on the worksheet so it is not paid twice.

Worksheet A or Worksheet B: shared custody and the 1.5 multiplier

R.S. 9:315.20 sets out two worksheets. Worksheet A is the standard form where one parent is domiciliary. Worksheet B applies to shared custody, which R.S. 9:315.9 defines as each parent having physical custody for an approximately equal amount of time. A 60/40 split does not qualify.

On Worksheet B the basic obligation is first multiplied by 1.5 to reflect the cost of two full households. Each parent’s share of that larger figure is cross-multiplied by the percentage of time the child spends with the other parent, the add-ons are allocated, and the parent with the larger result pays the difference. Similar incomes often produce a small payment; a wide income gap can still produce substantial support. Either way, the figure cannot exceed what the paying parent would owe under Worksheet A.

When a judge can deviate

R.S. 9:315.1 makes the guideline amount a rebuttable presumption. A court may deviate only if applying the guidelines would not serve the child’s best interest or would be inequitable, and it must give specific oral or written reasons, including the amount a mechanical application would have produced. The statute lists what can justify one: a legal duty to other dependents, support orders for children of other relationships, extraordinary medical expenses or community debt, a parent’s disability, support for an adult child with a disability, and any other circumstance that makes the guideline figure unfair. Parents can stipulate to an amount, but the court checks it against the guidelines first.

How a case moves in Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines, or St. Bernard

Support is set by the district court for the parish: Civil District Court for Orleans, the 24th Judicial District Court for Jefferson, the 25th for Plaquemines, and the 34th for St. Bernard. It is requested in the divorce or custody petition or by a separate rule, with the income statement and worksheet attached.

The filing date matters. Under R.S. 9:315.21 an award is generally retroactive to the date of judicial demand, the day the request was filed, unless the court finds good cause for a later date, and it can never reach back before the filing. Delay in filing is simply money not recovered.

Under R.S. 46:236.5 many district courts use hearing officers: experienced family-law attorneys employed by the court who take testimony, review the income documentation, and issue a written recommendation. If neither parent objects within the short deadline set by court rule, the judge signs the recommendation and it becomes the judgment. If a parent objects in time, the judge hears the matter anew. Cases handled by DCFS Child Support Enforcement go through the same courts with the state presenting the case.

Once support is set, the money generally does not change hands directly. R.S. 9:303 and R.S. 46:236.3 require an immediate income assignment in nearly every new or modified order unless both parents sign a court-approved written alternative or the court finds good cause. The employer withholds support from each paycheck, remits it within seven days, and may not fire or discipline the employee over the withholding. Payments flow through the state disbursement unit run by DCFS, which records them and sends them to the receiving parent by direct deposit or a stored-value card. A parent can apply for DCFS services online or by mail; a parent receiving FITAP, KCSP, or Medicaid is enrolled automatically.

Changing support later

Under R.S. 9:311, either parent can ask to raise or lower support by showing a material change in circumstances since the last order that is substantial and continuing: an involuntary job loss, a significant raise, a change in custody, or a new disability. Where DCFS is enforcing the order, a material change is presumed if recalculating under the guidelines would move the number by at least 25 percent, and the statute allows a review every three years on which the court may bring the order into line with the guidelines without any showing of changed circumstances. A judgment for past-due support is not itself grounds for a reduction. A modification is retroactive only to the date it is filed, so a parent whose income drops should file promptly rather than fall behind and ask for relief later.

Child support is one piece of a family case. For how custody itself is decided, see Child Custody in Louisiana: How Judges Decide, and for changing an existing custody order, which often changes the support calculation with it, see How to Modify a Child Custody or Visitation Order in Louisiana.

For purposes of compliance with the Louisiana Rules of Professional Conduct, the attorney responsible for this content is Donald J. Melancon (105 Field Street, Belle Chasse, Louisiana 70037).