Child support in Kansas.
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 stateKansas
Kansas adds both parents' 'domestic gross income,' adjusts it, and reads a Child Support Schedule that varies by three things: combined income, number of children, and each child's age bracket. That total is divided in proportion to income, health and dental insurance premiums and work-related child care are added, and each parent is credited for what they actually pay. The result on Line I.2 of the worksheet is the presumptive order.
How Kansas works out the number
Authority: Kansas Child Support Guidelines, adopted by the Kansas Supreme Court pursuant to K.S.A. 20-165 (2024 Guidelines, effective May 1, 2025)Kansas uses percentage of time, not overnights, and the trigger is 35%. 'If the child spends 35% or more of the child's time with the parent not having primary residency, the court shall determine whether an adjustment in child support is appropriate.' The table: 35–39% of the child's time gives a 10% adjustment, 40–44% gives 20%, 45–49% gives 30%. Time at school or in day care does not count toward either parent. There is also an Extended Parenting Time Adjustment when a child spends 14 or more consecutive days with the non-primary parent, reducing support by up to 50% of the monthly amount for that period; and a Non-Exercise adjustment running the other way if a parent historically does not show up. At true equal time, a separate Equal Parenting Time formula applies, in which one parent pays the direct expenses and the other contributes 7%, 10.5% or 15% of the basic obligation depending on whether combined monthly child support income is at or under $4,690, between $4,690 and $8,125, or at or above $8,125.
Use the state’s own calculator, not ours
Kansas publishes this itself, free. It is called Child Support Worksheet (Appendix I to the Kansas Child Support Guidelines), filed with either a Domestic Relations Affidavit (Appendix III) or a Child Support . 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 Kansas calculator →What goes into the calculation
What counts as income
'The domestic gross income for the wage earner is income from all sources, including that which is regularly or periodically received, excluding public assistance and child support received for other children in the residency of either parent. Income includes bonuses, commissions, incentives, overtime, shift differential, vacation pay, and other supplemental income.' Military pay, VA disability, SSDI, disability and workers' comp are included. For overtime: 'if overtime is regularly earned by one of the parties, then a historical average of one year should be considered.' Bonuses may be averaged into monthly income, paid as a percentage on receipt, or handled another way the court approves. Self-employment gross income is 'income minus reasonable business expenses' — expenses actually necessary to produce income; the qualified business income (QBI) deduction is expressly not a reasonable business expense, and depreciation counts only if shown to be necessary. Gifts and inheritance are generally not income when received.
When a judge can treat you as earning more
Income may be imputed 'in appropriate circumstances,' and 'The court must make written findings in support of imputing income.' After weighing assets, residence, work and earnings history, job skills, education, literacy, age, health, criminal record and other barriers, record of seeking work, the local job market, employers willing to hire, and prevailing local earnings, 'the court may find that a parent is able to earn at least the federal minimum wage and work 40 hours per week.' If a parent is fired for misconduct, their previous wage may be imputed, at not less than federal minimum wage. 'Incarceration by itself may not be treated as voluntary unemployment.' Income may also be imputed to the primary residential parent, but doing so must not raise the other parent's obligation.
If you do not earn much
Kansas uses an Ability to Pay Calculation instead of a fixed self-support reserve. 'In calculating child support, the court must take into consideration the current federal poverty guidelines for a household of one,' which change annually. The court subtracts the poverty guideline for one person from the paying parent's child support income; the remainder is 'income available for support.' If that remainder is less than the calculated support, the court sets an amount based on the children's best interests. Each schedule page also shows a poverty level line that limits use of the multiple-family application.
Childcare and health insurance
Both are added to the gross child support obligation and then shared in proportion to income, with the parent who actually pays getting credit. 'Actual, reasonable, and necessary childcare costs paid to permit employment or job search of a parent should be added to the support obligation' — net of any third-party reimbursement and reduced by the anticipated or available federal child care tax credit, averaged across the year including school breaks. Physical health, mental health, dental, orthodontic and vision premiums are all included, at actual cost for the children, with the court free to decide whether the proposed cost is reasonable.
Private school, special needs, activities
Handled as discretionary adjustments in Section J of the worksheet, which must be requested in writing before the hearing by the parent who wants them, and granted only if in the children's best interest. 'Special Needs' covers 'ongoing treatment for health problems, orthodontist care, special education, or therapy costs.' Note that Kansas treats routine school and extracurricular costs as already built in: 'Basic direct expenses include clothing, all school and school-related expenses including school lunches and extracurricular activities.' Long-distance parenting travel and income tax consequences are also adjustment lines.
When a judge can depart from the number
'The court must make written findings regarding deviations to the child support guideline amount and include the reason why the deviation is in the best interest of the child.' The party seeking the deviation or adjustment carries the burden of proof.
Two things catch Kansas parents off guard. First, the parenting-time discount is smaller than people expect and it counts time, not overnights, with school and day care hours excluded — at 40% of the child's time you get a 20% adjustment, not a 40% one. Second, the 3-year rule is a genuine free pass: once your order is three years old you can ask for a review without proving that anything changed at all. Many people wait years assuming they need a big life event first.
Later on
When it ends
Under K.S.A. 23-3001(b), support runs 'for any child less than 18 years of age, at which age the support shall terminate' unless: the parents agree in a court-approved written agreement to pay longer; the child turns 18 before finishing high school, in which case support continues 'until June 30 of the school year during which the child became 18 years of age if the child is still attending high school'; or the child is still a bona fide high school student after that June 30, in which case the court on motion 'may order support to continue through the school year during which the child becomes 19 years of age' — but only if the parents 'jointly participated or knowingly acquiesced in the decision that delayed the child's completion of high school.'
College and support after 18
Only by written agreement. K.S.A. 23-3001(b)(1) allows support past 18 where 'The parent or parents agree, by written agreement approved by the court, to pay support beyond the time the child reaches 18 years of age.' Separately, the guidelines say that if a parent is already supporting a child in college or past majority, that fact may be considered when the primary residential parent asks to increase support for the children still under 18.
Changing the amount later
Two routes. By statute, K.S.A. 23-3005(a): within three years of the last order you must show 'a material change in circumstances'; 'If more than three years has passed since the date of the original order or modification order, a material change in circumstance need not be shown.' The guidelines add the 10% Rule: a change in the parents' finances or in the guidelines that would move Line I.2 by 10% up or down is a material change — except that non-historical income from a second job or overtime taken by the non-primary-residency parent does not by itself count, and neither do bonuses not shown to be regularly paid. A child moving into a higher age bracket (past the 6th or 12th birthday) is also a material change. An increase in the primary residential parent's income is not a material change for the purpose of increasing support.
How far back a change can reach
K.S.A. 23-3005(b): 'The court may make a modification of child support retroactive to the first day of the month following the filing of the motion to modify.' Nothing earlier.
If someone stops paying
Support ordered under the guidelines must be paid through the Kansas Payment Center unless the court finds good cause for direct payments under K.S.A. 23-3004; payments made outside that route are 'presumptively disallowed' as credit. Where a court trustee or the Department for Children and Families collects an enforcement fee, the guidelines split it equally between the parents on the worksheet.
What we could not confirm
- We could not confirm from the Judicial Branch's own site the direct download links for the fillable worksheet, or Kansas's official rules on license suspension and interest on unpaid support. The guidelines page linked above lists the worksheet and affidavits for download; your district court clerk or a court trustee's office can point you to the right file.
Compare all fifty states
The overnight thresholds, the ending ages and the college rules, side by side.
The rest of what we have written about Kansas. Every figure is quoted from Kansas’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.