Setting up two households and figuring out logistics for the children’s lives going forward after divorce is top of mind for parents ending their marriage. Of course, the child-support award is crucially important to the well-being of the kids.
But also key to a child’s best interests are all issues related to custody and visitation, known as time-sharing in Florida. And state law recognizes how parental financial support and time spent with each parent are intertwined.
Florida has an elaborate statute for judges to follow when deciding questions of child support. It mandates special treatment of cases when “any of the children are required by court order or mediation agreement to spend a substantial amount of time with either parent” in “any living arrangement, whether temporary or permanent.”
A “substantial amount of time” refers to a parent “exercis[ing] time-sharing at least 20% of the overnights of the year.”
The child-support guidelines
We previously posted a two-part blog explaining the child-support guideline law in detail. (Part 2 links to part 1.) A high-level summary:
- The court enters each parent’s net income and the number of children into a table that indicates the scheduled amount, presumed to be appropriate and setting a minimum amount.
- The judge has a 5% leeway up or down from the guideline amount if relevant factors support it. More than 5% can be adjusted if otherwise it would be inappropriate or not just.
- The judge adds the costs of health insurance for the kids, their uncovered medical bills and childcare expenses and uses a formula to assign the support amount between the parents.
- The court may consider “deviation factors” to adjust the amount further. These factors are specifically listed but may include anything that would make the award more equitable.
But if one or both parents will have the children overnight for at least one-fifth of the overnights in a year, the judge must take this into account in making another adjustment. This recognizes that the expenses of the kids’ lives should follow where they spend time – that it would not be appropriate for a parent who spends substantial time with them not to have the financial means of support the kids deserve during that parental time.
The adjustment
The statute provides a detailed mathematical formula to determine the appropriate transfer between the parents to reflect the substantial overnight visitation schedule. The formula considers each of the parent’s net incomes, ratio of overnights between the parents, day care and health insurance and other factors. The judge may depart from the formula amount considering the deviation factors or others listed such as whether either of them will not exercise their time-sharing rights or the kids do not all have the same schedules.
Florida courts have interpreted this provision in a variety of situations. For example, in one case, the time-sharing schedule varied every other year, so the court calculated an adjustment for overnights based on the two different scenarios.
