Child support guideline changes in 2026

Child support guidelines change more often than most parents expect. Some years a state rewrites its schedule or its formula; other years a single figure moves because the guidelines tie it to the minimum wage, the federal poverty guideline or the year’s tax tables. Either kind of change can move the guideline amount for the same family.

This page lists every state this site covers whose current guideline version took effect in 2026. The list and the tables are computed from the same rules files the calculator uses, so they update as states publish new versions and as more states are added.

Why guidelines change

Federal rules require each state to review its guidelines at least every 4 years and revise them if appropriate (45 CFR 302.56(e)). The review has to look at economic data on the cost of raising children, labor market data and the effect of the guidelines on low-income parents, and it has to analyze how often courts deviate. Many states write the cycle into their own law. Washington’s review statute has the state’s child support division convene a quadrennial work group that reviews the guidelines and reports to the legislature. Missouri’s statute, § 452.340 RSMo, requires the Supreme Court of Missouri to review its guidelines on a regular cycle so that they keep producing appropriate amounts.

A review does not always lead to a change, and a change can take years to arrive after the review that prompted it, because it may need a court order, an agency rule or an act of the legislature.

Changes fall into two groups:

• Revisions rewrite the guidelines themselves: a new schedule of basic obligations, a new parenting-time formula, new low-income rules or a new worksheet. They can change the guideline amount for almost every family in the state.
• Indexed updates move a figure the guidelines already tie to something outside them. A self-support reserve set at the state minimum wage or at a percentage of the federal poverty guideline moves when those do, and states that estimate net income need each year’s tax tables. These mostly affect families at low incomes or near a threshold.

This year’s changes at a glance

Among the states this site covers, 27 have a current guideline version that took effect in 2026. Of those, 7 revised their guidelines and 10 updated indexed figures.

Where a state’s calculator page is live, its name links there; the page applies the current version and states its effective date. The home page carries the same list under “2026 guideline changes.”

The most significant changes

Revisions matter most, because they change the formula for everyone. These are the states covered here whose current version is a revision that took effect in 2026:

• Georgia, effective January 1, 2026: Changes enacted in 2024 took effect: a parenting time adjustment now applies whenever there is court-ordered parenting time, and an automatic low-income adjustment replaced the former low-income deviation. Source.
• Iowa, effective January 1, 2026: The Iowa Supreme Court amended its child support guidelines, including a new schedule of basic support obligations, for cases pending on or after the effective date. Source.
• Missouri, effective January 1, 2026: A new Form 14 worksheet, directions and schedule of basic child support obligations, adopted by the Supreme Court of Missouri after its 2024 guidelines review, replaced the previous version. Source.
• Pennsylvania, effective January 1, 2026: Amendments adopted by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania brought a new basic child support schedule and raised the self-support reserve to $1,255 a month. Source.
• Washington, effective January 1, 2026: A 2025 law expanded the economic table to $50,000 of combined net income a month, raised the self-support reserve and added a deduction for mandatory state insurance premiums. Source.
• Colorado, effective March 1, 2026: A 2025 amendment to the guideline statute brought in a new schedule running to $40,000 of combined income a month, a self-support reserve tied to the state minimum wage, new low-income rules and a parenting-time credit table that covers every overnight. Source.
• Connecticut, effective August 1, 2026: New Child Support and Arrearage Guidelines replaced the 2015 set, with a new schedule that runs to $6,000 of combined net income a week and a revised worksheet. Source.

Revisions usually follow a state’s periodic review. The review committee or commission updates the estimates of what parents spend on children, which moves the schedule, and it often uses the same occasion to change how parenting time or low incomes are handled. A new schedule can raise amounts at some incomes and lower them at others, so the effect on a given family depends on both parents’ incomes, the number of children and the parenting schedule. The child support calculator applies the current version for each state.

Indexed updates this year

These states updated figures their guidelines tie to the minimum wage, the poverty guideline or tax tables, without changing the rules themselves:

• Arizona, effective January 1, 2026: The self-support reserve moved to the new state minimum wage, as the guidelines require each year. The guidelines themselves have not changed since 2022. Source.
• California, effective January 1, 2026: The low-income adjustment threshold moved with the new state minimum wage. The guideline formula has not changed since September 2024. Source.
• Minnesota, effective January 1, 2026: The self-support reserve moved with the new federal poverty guideline. The guideline statutes are otherwise unchanged. Source.
• Texas, effective January 1, 2026: The Attorney General's new tax charts set the net-resources calculation for the year. The guideline percentages are unchanged, and the cap on net resources was last adjusted for inflation in September 2025. Source.
• New York, effective March 1, 2026: The March update brought new poverty guideline and self-support reserve figures and, as it does every two years, a higher combined parental income amount of $193,000. Source.
• Wisconsin, effective March 1, 2026: The low-income table in Appendix C was updated to the new federal poverty guidelines. The rule text has not changed since 2024. Source.
• Illinois, effective March 20, 2026: The Department of Healthcare and Family Services published its yearly update of the schedule of basic obligations and the gross-to-net income conversion table. Source.
• Ohio, effective April 1, 2026: A revised guideline manual updated the child care cost maximums. The basic schedule, in force since June 2023, did not change. Source.
• New Jersey, effective June 1, 2026: The yearly updating amendments took effect: new tax withholding tables, a new self-support reserve and household thresholds tied to the federal poverty guideline, and new child care tax credit tables. The schedule adopted in 2025 did not change. Source.
• Oregon, effective July 1, 2026: The self-support reserve and the minimum wage figures used for imputed income were reset, as they are every July. Source.

Indexed updates usually come at the same time each year: many minimum wages and tax tables change in January, and the federal poverty guidelines are published early in the year, with some states adopting them a few weeks or months later.

Changes already scheduled

Some states publish a new version before it takes effect. These are the versions already published that start after the date this page was built:

• California, from January 1, 2027 (indexed figures updated): The low-income adjustment threshold moves with the next state minimum wage. The formula stays the same. Source.
• Colorado, from January 1, 2027 (indexed figures updated): The self-support reserve moves with the next state minimum wage. The schedule and the rest of the guidelines stay the same. Source.
• Illinois, from January 1, 2027 (guidelines revised): A new law lowers the shared physical care threshold to 110 overnights a year, with an adjustment table for parents just above it, and raises the income line for minimum orders to the full federal poverty guideline. Source.
• Utah, from January 1, 2027.

For these states, the calculator offers a version selector so you can compare the current guideline amount with the amount under the coming version.

What a change means for an existing order

A new guideline version applies to orders set or modified after it takes effect. It does not change an existing order by itself. Payments stay due under the current order until a court or agency changes it.

A guideline change can still matter to a family with an order. If the new version would produce a noticeably different amount, it may be worth asking for a review. States set their own thresholds for when a difference is large enough to modify. The modification calculator compares an existing order with the current guideline amount, and the guide on how to modify child support explains the thresholds and the process.

Any new amount is still a guideline amount: courts can deviate from it for the reasons the state allows, as the guide to deviating from the guidelines explains.