Child Support Attorneys in West Springfield, MA

Child support in Massachusetts runs on a formula, which sounds reassuring right up until you learn how many inputs the formula has and how much turns on getting each one right.

Attorney Tanya K. Moriarty has handled child support matters in Hampden County Probate and Family Court for more than two decades. Sclafani & Moriarty has served families across Western Massachusetts for over 25 years, from our office at 776 Westfield Street in West Springfield.

The initial consultation is free and takes place in our office. Payment plans are available. Call 413-732-8356.

How Is Child Support Calculated in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts uses the Child Support Guidelines, which produce a presumptive order from both parents’ gross incomes, the number and ages of the children, the parenting schedule, and certain costs including child care and health insurance. Judges may deviate, but must explain why in writing.

The number comes out of a worksheet, not a judge’s instinct. Both parents file financial statements, the figures go into the Child Support Guidelines worksheet, and it produces a presumptive weekly amount.

Presumptive means the court is expected to order it. A judge can go higher or lower where the circumstances justify it, but any deviation requires written findings explaining why the guidelines figure would be unjust or inappropriate.

The inputs that move the number most are gross income for both parents, how many children the order covers and whether any have turned 18, the parenting schedule, and what each parent actually pays for child care and health coverage.

Support is calculated on gross income, not take-home pay. And it is neither deductible by the parent paying it nor taxable to the parent receiving it.

What Changed in the 2025 Child Support Guidelines?

The 2025 Guidelines took effect on December 1, 2025. The combined income ceiling rose from $400,000 to $450,000, the child care benchmark rose from $355 to $430 per week per child, and the presumptive minimum orders for lower-income payors changed substantially.

Massachusetts reviews the Guidelines every four years. The current set applies to orders entered or modified on or after December 1, 2025.

Minimum orders moved. A payor earning $301 per week or less now faces a presumptive order of no more than $15 per week. Between $302 and $391 per week, no more than $33. The previous thresholds sat at $210 and $249, and the Task Force’s own commentary notes the change produces a significant decrease for payors earning between $211 and $391 per week.

The income ceiling rose to $450,000 of combined available annual gross income. Above that figure, the order calculated at the ceiling becomes the minimum presumptive amount, and support on anything beyond it is discretionary.

Child care rose to $430 per week per child, up from $355, reflecting the average cost of center-based infant care in Massachusetts.

Parenting time deviations were clarified. New language confirms a court can deviate where a schedule does not fit the worksheet’s categories, added after public comment showed parents believed otherwise.

How Does Parenting Time Affect the Amount?

The base calculation assumes the children live primarily with one parent and spend roughly one-third of their time with the other. The worksheet also handles approximately equal shared schedules and split arrangements where each parent is the primary residence for at least one child.

Parenting time is an input, not a lever. The Guidelines are explicit that a parenting plan should be built around the children rather than around the support figure.

The default assumption is a primary residence with one parent and about a third of the time with the other. From there, the worksheet recognizes three arrangements:

• Shared, where time and financial responsibility are approximately equal
• Primary, where the children are with one parent roughly two-thirds of the time
• Split, where each parent provides the primary residence for at least one child

Schedules that fall between these categories are common, and the court can deviate to account for them. Where the non-residential parent has substantially less than a third of the time, the court may adjust the figure upward. Where that parent has substantially more than a third but less than half, an adjustment is also available.

What Gets Added for Child Care, Insurance, and Medical Bills?

Child care costs actually paid are shared in proportion to income, up to $430 per week per child. Health insurance premiums are deducted from the paying parent’s gross income. The parent receiving support covers the first $250 each year in uninsured medical costs, with the remainder allocated by the court.

These add-ons move the final number more than most parents expect.

Child care. Reasonable out-of-pocket costs actually paid, after any subsidies or discounts, up to $430 per week per child, shared in proportion to income. You get credit for what you actually spend — not for care a grandparent provides free, and not for the portion a subsidy covers. Keep the records.

Health insurance. Each parent deducts the reasonable premium they actually pay. Coverage counts as reasonable in cost if it runs no more than 5% of the gross income of the parent ordered to provide it, and as accessible if covered services are available within 15 miles of the child’s home.

Uninsured medical. The parent receiving support pays the first $250 each year in combined out-of-pocket and uninsured medical, dental, and vision costs for all the children. Beyond that the court allocates, increasingly in proportion to income rather than splitting evenly.

Everything else. Extracurriculars, private school, and enrichment camps are discretionary. A court can order a contribution where the expense is affordable and serves the child, but none of it is automatic.

How Long Does Child Support Last?

Support is generally ordered until 18. It may continue to 21 where a child lives with a parent and is principally dependent on that parent, and to 23 where the child is also enrolled in an undergraduate educational program. A child still in high school at 18 is treated as a minor.

Massachusetts does not simply cut support off at a birthday.

Support to 18 is the baseline, and a child who has turned 18 but is still enrolled in and attending high school is treated as under 18 for calculation purposes. Between 18 and 21, support may be ordered where the child lives with a parent and is principally dependent on that parent. Between 21 and 23, the same test applies with an added requirement: enrollment in an educational program, and nothing beyond an undergraduate degree. Those limits come from Chapter 208, Section 28 and its counterparts.

Support for a child 18 or older is discretionary rather than automatic, and the formula reduces it, roughly a quarter below what the same child would generate at a younger age, on the reasoning that an older child may be living away at school or old enough to contribute.

Orders do not end themselves. If your youngest is aging out, that is a court filing, not an automatic event.

Will I Be Ordered to Pay for College?

Possibly, but a contribution to college is discretionary and not presumptive. No parent can be ordered to pay more than half the in-state undergraduate cost of UMass Amherst without written findings of an ability to pay more, and that ceiling applies no matter where the child actually enrolls.

College contribution is separate from child support. A court may order it, may order support instead, or may order both, and where it orders both, it must weigh the combined burden.

The ceiling is the part worth knowing. The Guidelines set the benchmark at 50% of the in-state undergraduate cost at UMass Amherst, defined as mandatory fees, tuition, housing, meal plan, and books. For the 2025–2026 year, the Guidelines fix that figure at $37,015. A judge can go above half of it only by entering written findings that a parent can afford more.

That cap applies regardless of where your child enrolls. A private university costing four times as much does not raise it.

In deciding whether to order any contribution, courts look at the cost, the child’s aptitude, where the child is living, what resources each parent and the child have, whether a parent would need to liquidate assets or take out loans, and what financial aid is available.

How Do I Change an Existing Child Support Order?

You may not need a change in circumstances at all. Massachusetts allows modification where the existing order is simply inconsistent with what the current Guidelines would produce, which, following the December 2025 changes, describes a great many orders entered before that date.

This is the most widely misunderstood rule in Massachusetts child support, and misunderstanding it costs parents money.

Nearly everyone believes a modification requires a material and substantial change in circumstances. That is one ground. It is not the only one. Section III of the Guidelines lists five:

• The existing order is inconsistent with what the Guidelines would produce today
• Previously ordered health care coverage is no longer available
• Coverage remains available but no longer at a reasonable cost or without undue hardship
• Coverage that was not previously available to a parent has become available
• Any other material and substantial change in circumstances

The first stands entirely on its own. No job loss, no new child, no move. If running current incomes through the current worksheet produces a materially different figure than your order requires, that gap is itself a ground for modification.

The Guidelines changed on December 1, 2025 — minimums moved, the income ceiling moved, the child care benchmark moved. Orders entered under the earlier version may well be inconsistent with the current ones, and nobody sends a notice when that happens.

What Happens If Child Support Is Not Paid?

Unpaid support accrues as arrears and does not go away. The Department of Revenue can withhold income, intercept tax refunds, place liens, suspend licenses, and report to credit bureaus. A parent who is owed support can also file a complaint for contempt in Probate and Family Court.

Child support arrears are among the most durable debts in American law. They survive bankruptcy, they accrue whether or not anyone is actively chasing them, and a court cannot retroactively forgive what has already built up.

The Department of Revenue’s child support program handles enforcement for most Massachusetts orders and carries a substantial toolkit: income withholding straight from wages, interception of state and federal tax refunds, liens on property and accounts, suspension of driver’s, professional, and business licenses, and reporting to credit bureaus.

A parent who is owed support can also come directly to court with a complaint for contempt, which can produce a payment order, an award of attorney’s fees, and in serious cases a jail sentence.

If you cannot afford your order, file for modification rather than stopping payment. Arrears that accrue before you file generally cannot be undone afterward.

What Does a Child Support Case Cost?

The initial consultation at Sclafani & Moriarty is free. We quote a fee once we understand what your case involves, and payment plans are available. Running your figures through the current Guidelines worksheet is something we can do at that first meeting.

Most child support matters are more contained than a full divorce, and the cost usually reflects that.

An uncontested modification where both parents agree on the numbers is a modest, predictable expense. A contested case involving a self-employed parent, disputed income, or a fight over college contribution takes considerably more work.

We quote fees up front and offer payment schedules. Court costs are separate from what we charge, and we go through them before anything is filed.

Contact a West Springfield Child Support Lawyer

If your order predates December 2025, or if your circumstances have shifted since it was entered, the numbers are worth running. It costs nothing to find out where you stand.

Sclafani & Moriarty
776 Westfield Street
West Springfield, MA 01089
413-732-8356

Attorney Tanya K. Moriarty offers free initial consultations in our West Springfield office and represents parents throughout Hampden County in the Probate and Family Court in Springfield, including families from Chicopee, Holyoke, Agawam, Westfield, Longmeadow, and Ludlow. Payment plans are available. Call 413-732-8356 or use the contact form.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does child support cover extracurriculars and summer camp?

Not automatically. The base order covers ordinary living costs. Activities, private school, and enrichment camps are handled separately and are discretionary. Summer camp is treated differently where it functions as child care so a parent can work, which is a distinction the Guidelines address directly.

What if the other parent is self-employed and hiding income?

This is common and it is addressable. Courts can look past a tax return to lifestyle, spending patterns, asset ownership, and business expenses that quietly cover personal living costs, and can attribute income accordingly. It takes documentation and sometimes discovery, so bring whatever records you have.

Do I still pay support if the children are with me half the time?

Often yes. Equal parenting time does not eliminate support where the parents’ incomes differ. The worksheet handles shared schedules and the higher earner typically still pays something, because the goal is comparable resources for the children in both households rather than an even split of the bill.

Can we agree that neither of us pays child support?

You can propose it, but a judge has to approve it, and child support is considered a right belonging to the child rather than to either parent. Courts will scrutinize a zero order and generally want to see that the children’s needs are met before signing off.

Does having a new baby reduce what I owe?

Not by itself, and this catches people out. Obligations to a later family can be raised as a defense against an increase in an existing order, but they are not grounds to decrease one. The Guidelines treat the earlier children’s support as the prior commitment.

This content is provided for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Laws and statutes are revised and updated periodically, and the information here may not reflect the most current version of the law. You are strongly advised to speak with an attorney about the specifics of your situation.