Child support in Arkansas.
What the state’s own guideline says, where the number comes from, and the one figure that moves it more than anything you will argue about.
See a different stateArkansas
Arkansas adds both parents' gross incomes together, looks up what a family at that combined income typically spends on that number of children, and then splits that figure between the parents in proportion to what each one earns. The parent the children live with less pays their share to the other parent. This replaced the old system, which looked only at the paying parent's income and a flat chart.
How Arkansas works out the number
Authority: Arkansas Supreme Court Administrative Order No. 10 (Arkansas Child Support Guidelines), revised guidelines adopted in In re Implementation of the Revised Administrative Order No. 10, 2020 Ark. 131 (effective July 1, 2020) and amended thereafter; authorized by Ark. Code Ann. § 9-12-312(a)The chart assumes the paying parent has the children fewer than 141 overnights a year. When both parents have the children for at least 141 overnights per calendar year, a shared-custody adjustment applies. "Extraordinary time spent with the payor parent" is also a listed deviation factor below that threshold.
Use the state’s own calculator, not ours
Arkansas publishes this itself, free. It is called Child Support Worksheet (filed together with the Affidavit of Financial Means). We are not going to build a competing calculator and ask you to trust it — this is the one a judge will recognize.
Open the Arkansas calculator →What goes into the calculation
What counts as income
Gross income, not take-home pay. Administrative Order No. 10 defines income to include "wages, overtime pay, commissions, regularly-received bonuses, or other monies from all employers or as a result of any employment," plus business, partnership, contract, rental and self-employment earnings and distributions from profit-sharing, pensions and retirement. Self-employment income is "gross receipts minus ordinary and necessary expenses required for self-employment or business operation, including an employer's share of FICA." Swinging income is smoothed out: "Variable income such as commissions, bonuses, overtime pay, military bonuses, and dividends shall be averaged by the court over a reasonable period of time." A second job is income from "all employers," so it counts. The order also says gross income is used "to avoid disputes over issues of deductibility that would arise if a net income was used."
When a judge can treat you as earning more
If a parent is unemployed or underemployed, the court may calculate support on "potential income that would otherwise ordinarily be available to the parties" rather than what the parent actually brings home. The order recognizes that a disability, or the need to care for very young children, can justify a lower income figure instead of imputation.
If you do not earn much
There is a self-support reserve built into the chart. "In cases where the payor parent's monthly gross income is less than $900.00, the Chart applies a self-support reserve (SSR)," which is based on the federal poverty guidelines adjusted for Arkansas price levels. Below $900 a month, "a presumptive minimum award of $125.00 per month must issue unless a party can rebut the presumptive amount by a preponderance of the evidence." Grounds for rebutting the $125 minimum include incarceration, institutionalization, a verified physical disability, and SSI-only income.
Childcare and health insurance
Work-related childcare and health insurance are handled outside the base chart figure and added into the worksheet. Childcare "costs must be reasonable, not to exceed the level required to provide quality care for child(ren) from a licensed provider." Health insurance is treated as reasonable "if the cost of dependent coverage does not exceed 5% of the gross income" of the parent providing it.
Private school, special needs, activities
Not automatic. These come in as reasons to deviate from the chart. The listed factors include "educational expenses for the child(ren)" and "the provision or payment of special education needs or expenses," extraordinary uninsured medical costs for a single illness or condition (the order gives orthodontia and psychiatric therapy as examples), life and dental insurance for the children, extraordinary travel for court-ordered visitation, and creating or maintaining a trust fund for the children.
When a judge can depart from the number
"There is a rebuttable presumption that the amount of child support calculated pursuant to the most recent revision of the Family Support Chart and these Guidelines is the amount to be awarded." To depart, the order "must explain the reason(s) for the deviation," and it is enough if "the court provides in the order a specific written finding that the Worksheet-based amount is unjust or inappropriate."
Two things surprise people here. First, Arkansas now runs on both parents' incomes, not just the paying parent's, so a big raise for the parent with primary custody can change the number too. Second, the 141-overnight line matters a lot: at 140 overnights you get nothing, and at 141 the whole shared-custody calculation opens up. If you are negotiating a schedule, count the nights before you sign.
Later on
When it ends
The age of emancipation in Arkansas is 18. The state's child support agency states: "your duty to pay child support for a child will automatically end when the child turns 18 or otherwise emancipates under state law; however, if the child is still attending high school, child support continues until the child graduates or at the end of the school year after the child reaches 19 years of age, whichever is earlier." The procedure is in Ark. Code Ann. § 9-14-237. Arrears survive the end of the current obligation.
College and support after 18
We did not find any Arkansas authority allowing a court to order a parent to pay for college over that parent's objection. Support ordinarily stops at 18 or high school graduation. Parents can still agree to college contributions in a settlement, and courts enforce those agreements.
Changing the amount later
Arkansas made the guidelines themselves the trigger. Under Act 904 of 2019, "an inconsistency between the existing child-support award and the amount of child support that results from application of the Family Support Chart shall constitute a material change of circumstances sufficient to petition the court for modification," unless the gap fails a reasonable quantitative standard set by the state. The state child support office tells parents they may request a review of the order "once every three years," or sooner "if there is an increase or decrease of your income by 20% through no fault of your own."
How far back a change can reach
We could not confirm this state’s rule on how far back an order or a change can be applied. It matters: in some states the clock starts the day you file, so filing late costs money you do not get back.
If someone stops paying
Arkansas's Office of Child Support Enforcement publishes that support is collected by income withholding when the parent is employed; that it can "suspend your driver's, professional, business, and/or hunting and fishing licenses"; that it can "intercept state and federal income tax refunds"; and that unpaid support draws interest: "State law allows for interest at the rate of 10% to accrue on unpaid child support." A parent who does not pay "may be taken back to court and found in contempt of court" and can be jailed.
What we could not confirm
- We could not confirm from an Arkansas government source how far back a modification can reach once you file, or whether an initial order can be made retroactive. Ask the judge or your lawyer to spell out the effective date in writing when the order is entered, and file your modification request the day your circumstances change rather than waiting.
Compare all fifty states
The overnight thresholds, the ending ages and the college rules, side by side.