Georgia adds both parents’ incomes and finds the Basic Child Support Obligation on the state table. Each parent covers a share of that number in proportion to income. Health insurance and work related child care get added on top. A Decatur child support lawyer then argues the adjustments and deviations, which is where the money moves.
E.N. Banks-Ware Law Firm handles child support, custody, and divorce for families across Decatur and DeKalb County. The firm has practiced family law since 1991. Most parents who call have already run the online worksheet and gotten a number they do not trust. This page walks the same steps a court walks, in the same order.
Book a private consultation with E.N. Banks-Ware Law Firm at (470) 523-3135. The firm is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
How Georgia Builds a Child Support Number From Two Incomes
Georgia uses an income shares model. The law assumes a child should receive about the same share of parental income the child would have gotten in one household. O.C.G.A. Section 19-6-15 sets the steps, and every Georgia court follows the same order. The attorneys at E.N. Banks-Ware Law Firm walk through those steps with parents in Decatur before anyone signs a worksheet.
The calculation runs in a fixed order, and the order matters. The early steps are arithmetic. The later steps are argument, and they explain why two Decatur families with identical incomes can leave DeKalb County Superior Court with different orders. A deviation argument built on a wrong income figure fails before it starts.
Step One Counts Every Source of Gross Income
Gross income is broader than a paycheck. The statute reaches salary, commissions, and bonuses. It also reaches overtime, severance, and pensions. Interest, dividends, and rental income count too. Social Security disability benefits count. Public assistance such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families does not. Parents in Decatur often forget a category on their own worksheet, and the other side finds it in discovery.
Self-Employment Income and the Ordinary and Reasonable Expense Test
Self-employment income covers business operations, independent contract work, and rental property. The statute allows a deduction for ordinary and reasonable expenses necessary to produce that income. Tax deductions and support deductions are not the same thing. A vehicle written off on a Schedule C can still count as income here, and DeKalb County judges look closely at that line.
Imputed Income When a Parent Earns Less on Purpose
A court can impute income to a parent who is willfully unemployed or underemployed. The judge weighs earnings history, job skills, and education. Health, caretaking duties, and real barriers to work also count. The statute now separates earning capacity from money a parent can actually reach, which matters most for an incarcerated parent.
Step Two Subtracts Three Adjustments, and Only Three
Adjusted gross income is gross income minus three things. One half of self-employment and Medicare taxes comes out first, at 6.2% up to the federal OASDI cap plus 1.45%. A preexisting child support order the parent already pays comes out next. Last comes theoretical support for another qualified child living in the home. Nothing else comes out at this stage. Rent, car notes, and credit card debt stay in.
Step Three Reads the Basic Child Support Obligation Table
Both adjusted incomes get added together. That combined figure picks one row on the Basic Child Support Obligation table. The number of children picks the column. At $5,000 in combined monthly adjusted income, the table shows $887 for one child and $1,341 for two. At $10,000, the figures are $1,285 and $1,906. Each parent then owes a pro rata share, set by that parent’s percentage of the combined income.
Why Health Insurance and Child Care Get Added, Not Subtracted
This is the most common error on Georgia child support pages. Writers assume that a parent who pays the health premium gets to subtract it. The statute says the opposite. O.C.G.A. Section 19-6-15 defines the presumptive amount as “the basic child support obligation including health insurance and work related child care costs.”
Those two costs enter the worksheet as combined additional expenses. The court splits the total pro rata, the same way it splits the basic obligation. A parent who already pays the premium gets credit for the other parent’s share, but the presumptive amount still goes up. Getting this backward can shift a Decatur order by a few hundred dollars a month.
Health Insurance Premiums Enter the Worksheet as an Add-On
Only the portion of the premium that covers the child counts. A family plan gets prorated down to the child’s share. The court then orders coverage when it is reasonably available at reasonable cost. Vision and dental come in separately as a deviation rather than as part of the presumptive amount, which surprises most parents. Bring the actual premium statement, not an estimate.
Work Related Child Care Follows the Same Path
Child care counts only when it lets a parent work, look for work, or attend school. A summer program that runs while a parent works counts. A sitter for a night out does not. Use an annual cost divided into a monthly average. A Decatur after-school program that closes in June would otherwise overstate the number all year. The worksheet has a line for it.
What Changed on January 1, 2026, and What Older Pages Still Say
Senate Bill 454 passed the Georgia General Assembly in 2024. The Governor signed it on May 6, 2024, as Act 618. Part of it took effect on July 1, 2024, and the rest took effect on January 1, 2026. Most Georgia child support pages online were written before that second date and still describe the old rules.
Two things moved out of the deviation section and into the calculation itself. The parenting time deviation is gone, replaced by a parenting time adjustment. The low-income deviation is gone, replaced by a low-income adjustment. A deviation is discretionary, and a judge may decline it. An adjustment is part of the math.
The Parenting Time Deviation Became a Parenting Time Adjustment
Under the old rule, a noncustodial parent with heavy visitation had to ask for a deviation and hope. The court could say no without much explanation. Under the current statute, court-ordered parenting time feeds a formula that reduces the basic obligation. The reduction is no longer a favor. It is a calculation, and it is tied to what the parenting plan actually says.
How the Formula Weighs Court-Ordered Days
The formula raises each parent’s court-ordered days to the power of 2.5. That exponent means extra days matter more as the schedule approaches equal time. A parent who moves from 80 nights to 110 nights sees a larger change than the raw night count suggests. The result folds into the noncustodial parent’s share of the basic obligation.
Why the Parenting Plan Has to State the Days
The formula reads court-ordered days, not actual days. A Decatur parent who informally keeps the children four nights a week gets nothing from the adjustment if the order says every other weekend. Fix the parenting plan first. That is a child custody problem before it is a support problem.
Why Fathers Ask About This Section First
Most calls about the new adjustment come from fathers with standard visitation. The adjustment gives them a reason to negotiate the schedule rather than only the dollar figure. Georgia law does not favor mothers on parenting time, and a well-drafted plan now carries financial weight. Parents researching fathers and parenting time should read the plan and the worksheet together.
What a DeKalb County Judge Still Controls
The adjustment is formulaic, but the schedule feeding it is not. A judge in DeKalb County Superior Court decides how many nights each parent gets. The court can also deviate from the adjusted figure when the result would be unjust. So the fight moved. It is now about the parenting plan, earlier in the case.
The Low-Income Deviation Became a Low-Income Adjustment
Georgia now runs a separate low-income table. When a parent’s monthly adjusted gross income falls below the highest figure on that table, the obligation becomes the lesser of two numbers. Those are the presumptive amount and the table amount. The old version left this to judicial discretion, so two parents with the same income could get different orders. The current version does not.
Deviations Are Where a Decatur Child Support Lawyer Changes the Number
Once the worksheet produces a presumptive amount, the argument starts. A deviation moves the number up or down from that presumptive figure. The party asking for it carries the burden. This is the part of the case that rewards preparation, and it explains why a worksheet run in ten minutes rarely matches the final order.
Georgia lists specific deviations by name. A court may also grant a nonspecific deviation for other circumstances in the child’s best interest. Either way, the court has to write findings. Skip the findings and the order is vulnerable on appeal.
The Deviations Georgia Names by Statute
The statute names high income first, meaning combined monthly adjusted income above $40,000. Other health related insurance such as vision and dental comes next. Life insurance premiums, the child and dependent care tax credit, and travel expenses for parenting time each get their own line. So do alimony actually paid, a mortgage where the noncustodial parent provides shelter, and a permanency plan for a child in state custody.
Extraordinary Expenses and the 7% Threshold
Special expenses for child rearing only become a deviation once they pass a threshold. The statute sets that threshold at 7% of the basic child support obligation. Summer camp, music lessons, and school-sponsored activities are the usual examples. Below 7%, the table already covers them, which is why receipts matter more than complaints. Extraordinary medical expenses follow a separate route.
The Written Findings a Court Must Make
A judge cannot deviate silently. The order has to state the reasons for the deviation. It has to state what the presumptive amount would have been. It also has to explain why applying the presumptive amount would be unjust, and how the deviation serves the child’s best interest. An order missing those findings is a common ground for sending a Georgia support award back.
Where a DeKalb County Child Support Case Gets Filed
A Decatur case goes to DeKalb County Superior Court. The Clerk’s office sits on the ground floor at 556 North McDonough Street in Decatur. Rule nisi hearings go on the calendar in the Judicial Tower at the same address. The Georgia Division of Child Support Services runs a DeKalb office at 2910 Miller Road in Decatur for parents who use the state agency route.
Filing in DeKalb is electronic. The court has required e-filing since January 1, 2017, and has run paperless since January 1, 2018, through eFileGA. A parent cannot walk a support petition to the counter. That matters for timing, because an account and a payment method have to exist before anything gets filed.
The Worksheet Requirement in the DeKalb Standing Order
DeKalb County Superior Court applies a Standing Order Governing All Domestic Cases to every domestic case at filing. Chief Judge Shondeana C. Morris signed the current version. Paragraph 2 requires a child support worksheet, prepared under Georgia law, filed at the same time as the Domestic Relations Financial Affidavit. Nobody has to ask for that requirement, and missing it can put a parent in contempt.
The Deadlines That Run Before Your First Hearing
Two DeKalb deadlines catch parents off guard. The affidavit and worksheet have to be filed and served at least 10 days before any temporary hearing, final hearing, or mediation session. Any case involving a child under 18 also requires the Families in Transition seminar within 31 days of service. Both deadlines come from the standing order, not a Georgia statute. A case filed in Gwinnett follows different rules.
Electronic Filing Has Been Mandatory Since January 1, 2017
eFileGA handles civil and family filings for the DeKalb Clerk of Superior Court. Public access terminals sit in the courthouse for parents without a computer. The system runs around the clock, which helps when a deadline lands on a weekend. Registration takes time, so a parent filing without a lawyer should set it up early.
One Free Hour of Mediation at the Dispute Resolution Center
The standing order pushes contested cases toward mediation. The DeKalb County Courts Dispute Resolution Center gives domestic cases one hour of mediation at no cost. Time past that hour gets paid to the mediator and split between the parties. Arrive with a completed worksheet and a drafted parenting plan, because the free hour goes fast.
Changing a Georgia Child Support Order After a Judge Signs It
A support order is not permanent. Georgia allows a parent to modify a Georgia support order on proof of a substantial change in income or in the child’s needs. The petition goes back to DeKalb County Superior Court, and it needs a fresh worksheet run on current numbers.
The January 2026 changes give some parents a new reason to look. A noncustodial parent with substantial court-ordered parenting time may now compute a lower figure than the old deviation produced. That is not automatic, and the existing order stays in force until a judge changes it. A family law attorney in Decatur can tell you quickly whether the change is worth filing.
What Counts as a Substantial Change
Georgia does not set a fixed percentage. Courts look at a real change in either parent’s income or in the child’s needs. A layoff, a raise, or a new medical diagnosis can all qualify. A change in the parenting schedule can too. The other parent gets notice and a chance to respond. Timing rules also apply, so ask before you file rather than after.
The DeKalb Modification Packet and Its Worksheet
DeKalb County publishes a child support modification packet through the Superior Court. It calls for a petition, a verification, and a rule nisi form. It also calls for the financial affidavit, the child support worksheet with schedules, and a copy of the original order. The court directs parents to build the worksheet on the Georgia Child Support Commission calculator rather than by hand.
Questions Decatur Parents Ask About the Child Support Math
These come up in almost every first meeting about support in DeKalb County. Each answer traces to O.C.G.A. Section 19-6-15, to the DeKalb standing order, or to the Georgia Child Support Commission worksheet. None of them replaces a careful look at your own numbers and your own order.
Does Georgia Use a Percentage of Income for Child Support?
No. Georgia moved off the flat percentage model in 2007 and now uses an income shares model. Both parents’ incomes go into the calculation, and the table sets the base figure. Any page quoting a flat percentage of the noncustodial parent’s income is describing a rule Georgia repealed.
What Is the Highest Income the Georgia Table Covers?
The Basic Child Support Obligation table runs to $40,000 in combined monthly adjusted gross income. That ceiling rose from $30,000 when the table was revised effective July 1, 2024. Above $40,000, a court handles the case through a high income deviation.
Can Parents in Decatur Agree on Their Own Number?
Parents can agree, but a judge still has to approve the amount. The court compares the agreement to the presumptive amount from the worksheet. If the agreement is lower, the order needs written findings explaining why. An agreement filed without those findings often comes back.
How Long Does a Georgia Child Support Obligation Last?
Support generally runs until the child reaches the age of majority. If the child is still enrolled in and attending secondary school, it can continue, and Georgia caps that at age 20. A court can also order support past that point for a child with a disability. The order itself controls, so read it.
Does the Online Calculator Give a Final Answer?
It gives a presumptive amount, not a final order. The calculator cannot weigh a deviation argument or check whether the income figures are honest. A DeKalb County judge signs the order, and the worksheet is only the starting point. Run it, then have someone check the inputs.
Talk With a Decatur Child Support Lawyer Before You Sign a Worksheet
A support worksheet looks like arithmetic, so parents sign it. The arithmetic is only the first half. The income figures, the parenting time days, and the deviations decide what the number becomes. Each of those is arguable.
E.N. Banks-Ware Law Firm handles child support, custody, and modifications throughout DeKalb County. The firm has practiced family law since 1991 and has represented thousands of individuals through every stage of the family court process. A Decatur child support lawyer from the firm can review your worksheet line by line before it reaches the court.
Bring your pay records, your health insurance statement, and your child care invoices. Bring the current parenting plan too. Book a private consultation with E.N. Banks-Ware Law Firm at (470) 523-3135. The firm is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
You can also reach the firm through the contact page. The sooner someone looks at your numbers, the more room there is to fix them.