How Rhode Island Child Support Guidelines Work

Rhode Island child support guidelines use an Income Shares Model: both parents’ incomes are combined, the court looks up a base support figure on a schedule tied to the number of children, and the noncustodial parent pays a share of that figure proportional to their income. The result is expressed as a weekly amount, usually collected through wage withholding. The guidelines live in Family Court Administrative Order 23-02, which the court applies under Rhode Island General Laws § 15-5-16.2.¹²

What Counts as Income

The calculation starts with each parent’s weekly gross income before taxes or any other deductions. That includes wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses, dividends, interest, workers’ compensation, and disability payments. Living expenses generally are not subtracted at this stage.¹

Three categories of need-based public assistance are excluded from gross income: Supplemental Security Income, SNAP benefits, and need-based veterans’ benefits. Money meant to keep a parent housed and fed does not get pulled into the support math.

Deductions That Come Off the Top

Before the schedule lookup, specific deductions reduce each parent’s gross income to an adjusted figure. Those deductions are federal and state income taxes, Social Security (both OASDI and HI), state temporary disability insurance, health insurance premiums for the child, and any pre-existing child support orders for children from other relationships.³¹

Work-related childcare costs factor in as well, and the court can consider discretionary deductions for extraordinary medical expenses. What remains is each parent’s adjusted gross income, which feeds the guideline schedule.

How the Schedule Produces a Base Amount

Both parents’ adjusted incomes are added together. The combined figure is cross-referenced on the Child Support Guideline Schedule published with Administrative Order 23-02 against the number of children, producing a base monthly obligation. That figure represents what Rhode Island considers necessary to cover basic needs such as housing, food, and clothing.⁴

The schedule was last updated in July 2023 and builds in a self-support reserve tied to federal poverty guidelines for one person, which protects very low-income parents from orders that would push them below subsistence.⁵

Splitting the Base and Converting to Weekly

The base amount is divided between parents in proportion to each one’s share of combined adjusted income. If a parent earns 65 percent of the combined total, that parent is responsible for 65 percent of the base. The noncustodial parent’s share becomes the actual payment.¹

The court then converts the monthly obligation to a weekly figure by dividing by 4.3333. That weekly amount is what the order requires, and it is typically collected by automatic wage withholding.

When a Parent Is Unemployed or Underemployed

A parent who voluntarily stops working or earns below their capacity cannot expect a lower order on that basis. The court can impute income using work history, job skills, education, age, health, criminal record, and the local job market.⁵

When there is no other evidence of earning capacity, the court presumes income of at least the federal minimum wage for a 40-hour week. Two exceptions bar imputation: a parent who is physically or mentally incapacitated, and a parent who stays home to care for a child of the parties under age six. Incarceration cannot be treated as voluntary unemployment.²

When a Judge Can Set a Different Amount

The guideline number is a presumption, not a cap or a floor. If the formula would produce an unfair result for the child or either parent, the judge can order a different amount after making written findings. The statute lists the factors the court weighs:

The child’s own financial resources, such as a trust or inheritance
The custodial parent’s financial resources
The standard of living the child would have enjoyed had the family stayed together
The child’s physical, emotional, and educational needs, including special education, therapy, or medical care
The noncustodial parent’s financial resources and needs, including other obligations

Written findings are required. An order that departs from the schedule without a specific factual explanation is vulnerable on appeal.²

When Child Support Ends

A child is emancipated in Rhode Island at age 18, and that is when the support obligation normally stops. If the child is still in high school at 18, the court may extend support through graduation and for 90 days afterward, but never past the child’s 19th birthday.²

For a child with a severe physical or mental disability that began before emancipation, the court has discretion to order support beyond 18. The judge weighs the nature and cost of the disability, the child’s ability to earn income, both parents’ resources, and whether the primary caregiver cannot work full-time because of the care required.

One point catches paying parents off guard: support does not stop automatically on the child’s 18th birthday or at graduation. The paying parent has to file a motion and get a court order terminating the obligation. Until that order issues, the Office of Child Support Services will keep enforcing the existing order and arrears will keep adding up.⁶

Adoption of the child by someone else ends the obligation as of the adoption date. A termination of parental rights alone does not necessarily end the duty to pay.⁶

Changing an Existing Order

Either parent can ask the court to modify a child support order, but the threshold is a substantial change in circumstances. Job loss, a significant raise, a new disability, or a major change in the child’s needs can all qualify. The court must make specific written findings about what changed and why the new amount is appropriate.⁷

A modification can be made retroactive, but only back to the date the other parent was formally notified of the petition. However long a parent waited, and however drastically circumstances changed, the adjustment will not reach further back than that notice date. Filing promptly after a change matters.

Forms and Filing

Two forms drive the calculation in Family Court. The Child Support Guideline Worksheet is where the math actually happens: both parents’ incomes, deductions, and the schedule lookup are documented there.⁸ It is filed alongside the DR-6 Statement of Assets, Liabilities, Income and Expenses, which gives the court a full view of each parent’s finances, including debts and monthly expenses.³

Both forms are available through the Rhode Island Judiciary website or at the Family Court clerk’s office. Gather recent pay stubs and tax returns before completing the DR-6; the numbers need to match documented earnings. An inaccurate financial statement can produce an order based on wrong figures, and fixing it later requires a formal modification.

Attorneys file through the state’s Odyssey electronic filing system. Self-represented parents can file by mail or in person at the Family Court. After filing, the court issues a summons that must be served on the other parent, and a hearing is scheduled where a judge reviews the submitted data and enters the support order.

1
Rhode Island Office of Child Support Services. Establishment of a Child Support Order
2
Rhode Island General Assembly. Rhode Island Code 15-5-16.2 – Child Support
3
Rhode Island Office of Child Support Services. Statement of Assets, Liabilities, Income and Expenses
4
Rhode Island Office of Child Support Services. Child Support Guidelines
5
Rhode Island Office of Child Support Services. Rhode Island Family Court Administrative Order 23-02
6
Rhode Island Secretary of State. Rhode Island Code 218-RICR-30-00-1 – Child Support Rules and Regulations
7
Rhode Island General Assembly. Rhode Island Code 15-5-16.2.4 – Modification of Child Support
8
Rhode Island Office of Child Support Services. Rhode Island Family Court Child Support Guideline Worksheet