Child Support

New Child Support Guidelines effective January 1, 2023

Every child needs financial and emotional support and every child has the right to support from both parents. Minnesota’s child support program benefits children by enforcing parental responsibility for their support.

About the Program:

The Minnesota Department of Human Services, Child Support Division supervises the child support program. County child support offices administer it by working with the parents to establish and enforce child support orders. The child support program offers the following financial support:

Basic Support

Basic support is for expenses relating to the child's care, housing, food, clothing, and transportation. The amount is determined by applying the parent's combined parental income for determining child support (PICS) and the number of joint children to the basic support guidelines table. The basic support obligation does not include payment toward arrears.

Medical Support

Medical support is the providing of health care coverage for a joint child by carrying health care coverage for the joint child or by contributing to the cost of health care coverage, public coverage, unreimbursed medical expenses, and uninsured medical expenses of the joint child.

Child Care Support

Child care support is contributing to the cost of work or education related child care costs.

Services provided:

The child support program provides the following services:

• Collecting and Processing payments

• Enforcing Court Orders for Support

• Establishing County Orders for Basic, Medical, and Child Care Support

• Establishing Parentage

• Locating Parents

• Reviewing and Modifying Court Orders for Support

• Working with other states to enforce support when one parent does not live in Minnesota

The child support program does not provide the following services: