Child Support 2026

Child Support is defined by statute. The interpretation of the statute is left to court decisions. Many parents, upon divorce, desire to formulate their own schedules and rules relating to co-parenting. They seek out mediation as a modern way of seeking assistance to help them memorialize their parenting plan while doing most of the heavy-lifting themselves because they desire an autonomous approach.

Parents have a wide latitude when setting their schedules, including holidays and vacation rights. They may create new holidays (i.e. “Sisters’ Day) or designate an annual family reunion as a holiday or otherwise memorialize the specifics of their children’s routines in a contract.

All that freedom leads many couples to believe that they can likewise agree on the support of their children and reject the Child Support calculated under the “Maryland Child Support Guidelines” law. That is not the case; and such parents may feel very indignant when they discover that their freedom to make different financial choices relating to support of their children is limited under that law according to the Maryland courts.

Higher-income families whose combined family income exceeds the Maryland Child Support Guidelines” table are provided more leeway to craft their own Child Support plan. However, a recent case limited that freedom, despite the high incomes, and provided a warning to parents and family law attorneys that the principles of support under Maryland law rejects express and/or other waivers of Child Support, In fact, the failure to articulate in a Marital Settlement Agreement how the financial goals of the Maryland Child Support Guidelines are met via financial means may create a roadblock when the Court reviews Child Support at the time of divorce or post-divorce.

Similarly, unmarried parents face scrutiny of the Maryland courts if they seek to file their Parenting Plan in a court of law to have the protections of the courts in case of breach of the Parenting Plan contract. However, just like married parents are not scrutinized relating to support of their children, neither are unmarried parents who avoid filing their Parenting Plan with the courts. Even so, it is the exception to the rule that unmarried co-parents who are not in a relationship with each other feel confident enough in their co-parenting relationship to resist filing for the Court’s protection in the event that it is needed in the future. Co-parents who are that friendly likely don’t face overwhelming financial issues causing friction.

All this means it is increasingly more difficult to “get around” the Maryland Child Support Guidelines, and there are sound reasons for this obstacle. Guilty-feeling parents want to waive it and other may use it as a bargaining tool relating to a different topic. A child is entitled under Maryland law to share in the relative wealth of their parents.

As a Maryland mediator, these are the most common reasons that I hear and/or that I observe:

First: Each parent has sufficient funds to care for the Children when they are with each of them, and the lower earner does not need funds from the higher earner.

Second: The higher earner has sole physical custody, sufficient funds (in that parent’s opinion or practice) to support the Children, and desire to persuade the opposite parent not to disturb the custody arrangements as an alternative to paying the Child Support. Many parents fear that the opposite party only wants the kids to reduce/avoid Child Support. In many of those cases, the higher earner/sole physical custodian of the Children may be accustomed to paying all costs of the Children and was doing so prior to an after the parties’ separation from each other. This is a difficult matter especially if the party owing Child Support is not an ideal supervisor of the children.

Third: For whatever reason, the residual trust/affection between the parties conjoined with a higher-than-average aversion to government interference with their lives and children causes parties to be indignant to the requirements of the Maryland Child Support Guidelines and the Maryland courts. A mediator should “reality check” the trust issue; by asking questions such as , “Why not implement the Child Support allow the recipient to simply pay it back to the payor, or implement Child Support and trust the intended recipient not to complain to the Court about non-receipt?” This often prompts the parties to reluctantly accept the limits of their trust. If the payor cannot trust the intended recipient to repay money then why would the intended recipient of Child Support trust that the other will pay Children’s expenses upon request?

Most co-parents are relieved to avoid legal negotiations over Child Support. Where income of each party is simple (i.e. 1 job, no overtime, no bonus) easily determined/proven (i.e. W-2 income) and the health insurance premiums cost to add the Children to the existing policy is usually known, then the only issues left to determine is the children’s annual overnight schedule.

However, other financial agreements may substitute for direct Child Support, so there may be ways to mathematicallyarticulate how the financial needs of the children and requirements of the Maryland Child Support guidelines are met in an agreement; for example where one party agrees to pay off marital debts on the other’s behalf, or a division of assets in favor of the party who is due Child Support, but the smart drafting attorney should quantify this for the Court in Marital Settlement Agreement and explain how the Guidelines’ obligations are met.

When incomes are variable, filled with bonuses, and/or overtime, or include 2^nd and 3^rd jobs, and/or annual parental gifts, and other non-certain funds then the threshold of the negotiations relate to the fair calculation of incomes. But once income is reasonably determined, it is increasingly less likely to avoid the financial commitments contemplated by Maryland child support law.