Child support in North Dakota.
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 stateNorth Dakota
North Dakota looks only at the paying parent. The guidelines figure that parent's monthly net income, then read the support amount straight off a schedule by income and number of children. "Calculations of child support obligations provided for under this chapter consider and assume that one parent acts as a primary caregiver and the other parent contributes a payment of child support." The receiving parent's income is deliberately left out — the rules say you cannot argue for a lower number based on it.
How North Dakota works out the number
Authority: N.D. Admin. Code ch. 75-02-04.1, Child Support Guidelines (adopted by the Department of Health and Human Services under N.D.C.C. §§ 50-06-16 and 50-09-25, implementing N.D.C.C. § 14-09-09.7); key sections 75-02-04.1-01 (definitions), -02 (general instructions), -05 (self-employment), -07 (imputing income based on earning capacity).Yes, at 100 overnights. "'Extended parenting time' means parenting time between an obligor and a child living with an obligee scheduled by court order to exceed an annual total of one hundred overnights." The formula multiplies each child's overnights by .32, subtracts that from 365, divides by 365, and applies the fraction to that child's share of the obligation. Two catches: the order must actually specify the number of overnights, and the adjustment "is not authorized if the parents of a child for whom support is being determined have equal residential responsibility." In equal-responsibility cases, 75-02-04.1-08.2 instead calculates a support obligation for each parent as if the other had primary responsibility, and offsets the smaller against the larger.
Use the state’s own calculator, not ours
North Dakota publishes this itself, free. 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 North Dakota calculator →What goes into the calculation
What counts as income
Gross income includes "salaries, wages, overtime wages, commissions, bonuses" and income from all other sources — but with a real carve-out: it excludes "Atypical overtime wages or nonrecurring bonuses over which the employee does not have significant influence or control." Regular, controllable overtime counts; a one-off mandatory-overtime stretch you could not refuse may not. Net income is gross income reduced by hypothetical federal and state income tax, FICA, the portion of health insurance premiums covering the children, medical expenses, union dues and required unreimbursed employee expenses. Self-employment income is computed from IRS-based net income and may be averaged over as many as five years when the business has been run "on a substantially similar scale."
When a judge can treat you as earning more
North Dakota's rule is unusually specific. Under 75-02-04.1-07, income based on earning capacity is imputed to an obligor who is unemployed or underemployed, at the greatest of: "A monthly amount equal to one hundred sixty-seven times the hourly federal minimum wage"; "an amount equal to six-tenths of this state's statewide average earnings for persons with similar work history and occupational qualifications"; or "an amount equal to ninety percent of the obligor's greatest average gross monthly earnings, in any twelve consecutive months included in the current calendar year and the two previous calendar years." Imputation is barred where the reasonable cost of childcare "equals or exceeds seventy percent of the income which would otherwise be imputed" for the obligor's own child under 13 with no other caretaker at home; where a current medical statement confirms a disabling condition; where a minor child's unusual emotional or physical needs require the parent at home; where the obligor is under 18 (or under 19 and in high school); or where the obligor receives SSI, SSDI, workers' compensation wage replacement, or comparable disability benefits.
If you do not earn much
The old minimum support level section (75-02-04.1-04) was repealed. What functions as the floor is the schedule itself: at an obligor monthly net income of "800 or less" the support amount is $0 for any number of children. At $900 net the amounts run from $90 for one child to $261 for six or more. Notably, the rules bar rebutting the guideline figure based on "the subsistence needs, work expenses, and daily living expenses of the obligor" except in narrow listed circumstances.
Childcare and health insurance
The children's share of a health insurance premium is subtracted in computing the obligor's net income, so it lowers the support figure rather than being added on top. Childcare is not built into the schedule at all; ongoing childcare costs can support a deviation where "reasonably likely similar expenses will continue."
Private school, special needs, activities
These are rebuttal grounds under 75-02-04.1-09(2), not add-ons. The list includes the increased need where support for more than six children is sought; "the increased ability of an obligor, with a monthly net income which exceeds twenty-five thousand dollars"; and — for private school specifically — "the increased need if educational costs have been voluntarily incurred, at private schools, with the prior written concurrence of the obligor." That written-consent requirement is strict. Health costs exceeding 10 percent of gross income and travel expenses are also listed.
When a judge can depart from the number
The schedule amount "is presumed to be the correct amount of child support," and it "is rebutted only if a preponderance of the evidence establishes that a deviation from the guidelines is in the best interest of the supported children" and one of the enumerated criteria applies. You cannot rebut using factors the chapter already accounts for, the obligor's own living expenses, or the receiving parent's income.
Two things surprise people here. Your ex's income is irrelevant to the formula — even if they out-earn you two to one, the number comes off your income alone. And the one-year rule is a double-edged sword: after your order is twelve months old, either parent can force it to be recalculated to today's guidelines without proving anything changed at all. If your income went up, expect that motion.
Later on
When it ends
N.D.C.C. § 14-09-08.2: an order requiring support until majority "continues as to the child until the end of the month during which the child is graduated from high school or attains the age of nineteen years, whichever occurs first," provided the child is enrolled in and attending high school, is 18 before the expected graduation date, and lives with the person owed support. The statute treats a child as still in school over summer vacation, and a child is not "graduated" until the ceremony is held — though a court may find graduation at completion of coursework if the ceremony is more than 90 days later.
College and support after 18
No general college obligation, but the door is not fully closed. Section 14-09-08.2(6) provides that the section "does not preclude the entry of an order for child support which continues after the child reaches age eighteen, if the parties agree, or if the court determines the support to be appropriate."
Changing the amount later
N.D.C.C. § 14-09-08.4 is unusually mechanical. Orders enforced by the child support agency must be reviewed at least every 36 months. On review, if the order is "less than eighty-five percent or more than one hundred fifteen percent" of the current guideline amount, "the child support agency shall seek an amendment of the order." And in court: "If a child support obligation sought to be amended was entered at least one year before the filing of a motion or petition for amendment, the court shall order the amendment… whether or not a material change of circumstances has taken place." If the order is less than a year old, you must also show a material change.
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
North Dakota collects through income withholding paid to the state disbursement unit. Interest accrues on unpaid support: N.D.C.C. § 14-09-08.19 requires that "Each judgment or order requiring the payment of child support must include a statement that the child support obligation will accrue interest if not timely paid," and the accrual is valid even if the order forgets to say so. The child support agency also enforces health insurance coverage through the national medical support notice.
What we could not confirm
- We could not confirm from a North Dakota government source how far back an amendment reaches once you file, or the interest rate charged on unpaid support. Ask the child support agency for the current rate and the effective date the agency will use before you agree to anything.
Compare all fifty states
The overnight thresholds, the ending ages and the college rules, side by side.