Child support in Oklahoma.
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 stateOklahoma
Oklahoma computes support 'as a percentage of the combined gross income of both parents.' Both parents' adjusted gross monthly incomes are added, the Child Support Guideline Schedule in 43 O.S. § 119 gives a combined base obligation, and each parent owes the same percentage of it as they contribute to the combined income. Health insurance premiums and actual annualized child care are added on and allocated the same way. The same method applies whether custody is called sole or joint.
How Oklahoma works out the number
Authority: Okla. Stat. tit. 43, §§ 118, 118A–118I and 119The threshold is 121 overnights per twelve-month period. Below that, no adjustment. At or above it, the combined base obligation is multiplied by a factor and then re-divided, and each parent's share is multiplied by the percentage of time the child spends with the other parent, with the two figures offset. The factors: '121 overnights to 131 overnights, the factor shall be two (2); 132 overnights to 143 overnights, the factor shall be one and three-quarters (1.75); 144 or more overnights, the factor shall be one and one-half (1.5).' With multiple children on different schedules, you use the annual average across all of them. The adjustment is 'not mandatory, but presumptive,' and can be rebutted where it is not in the child's best interest or where the extra time does not actually cost the parent more.
Use the state’s own calculator, not ours
Oklahoma publishes this itself, free. It is called Child Support Computation Form (the form required by 43 O.S. § 120, which 'must be signed by the judge and attached as an exhibit to orders which establish. 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 Oklahoma calculator →What goes into the calculation
What counts as income
'Gross income includes earned and passive income from any source.' Earned income covers 'salaries, wages, tips, commissions, bonuses, severance pay, and military pay, including hostile fire or imminent danger pay, combat pay, family separation pay, or hardship duty location pay.' Passive income covers dividends, pensions, rent, interest, trust income, alimony from someone other than the other parent, annuities, Social Security, workers' comp, unemployment, disability, gifts, prizes, gambling and lottery winnings, and royalties. Overtime is handled by discretion: gross income is whichever is most equitable of 'all actual monthly income described in this section, plus such overtime and supplemental income as the court deems equitable,' the average gross monthly income for time actually employed over the past three years, minimum wage for a forty-hour week, or imputed income. Self-employment income 'includes income from, but not limited to, business operations, work as an independent contractor or consultant, sales of goods or services, and rental properties, less ordinary and reasonable expenses necessary to produce such income' — and 'A determination of business income for tax purposes shall not control,' with accelerated depreciation and investment tax credits disallowed. Fringe benefits count 'if they significantly reduce personal living expenses.'
When a judge can treat you as earning more
'Instead of using the actual or average income of a parent, the court may impute gross income to a parent under the provisions of this section if equitable.' The willful-and-voluntary factors include whether the parent has been found willfully or voluntarily underemployed or unemployed (including whether leaving work for training or education is reasonable given the duty to support and whether it will actually raise future support), whether there is reliable evidence of income, past and present employment, education, training and ability to work, and 'the lifestyle of the parent, including ownership of valuable assets and resources, whether in the name of the parent or the current spouse of the parent, that appears inappropriate or unreasonable for the income claimed by the parent.' A parent who is the caretaker of a handicapped or seriously ill child or relative gets that weighed too. If a parent is permanently physically or mentally incapacitated, support is computed on actual monthly gross income.
If you do not earn much
The schedule itself is the floor. The first row of the Schedule of Basic Child Support Obligations shows $50 across the board — at a combined gross monthly income of $50, the total support amount is $50 for one child through six or more. Oklahoma's schedule is also a low-income scale near the bottom: at $650 combined monthly income the figure is still $50 for one, two or three children.
Childcare and health insurance
Both are added on top of the base and split by income share. 'The actual annualized child care costs incurred for the purposes authorized by this section shall be allocated and added to the base child support order' — costs 'reasonably necessary to enable either or both parents to be employed, seek employment, or attend school or training to enhance employment income.' If a parent uses the DHS child care subsidy, the family share copayment from the Child Care Eligibility/Rates Schedule is what counts. Health insurance premiums are 'allocated between the parents in the same proportion as their adjusted gross income and shall be added to the base child support obligation.' 'Reasonable in cost' means the pro rata premium for the children does not exceed 5% of the responsible parent's gross income, computed by subtracting adult coverage from the total premium, dividing by the number of dependent children covered, and multiplying by the children on this order. 'Accessible' means providers within 60 miles one way of the children's primary residence. Where no plan is available or the only plan is a government program, cash medical support is ordered, capped at the pro rata actual monthly medical cost or 5% of the obligor's gross monthly income, whichever is less. The parent incurring child care must notify the obligor within forty-five (45) days of any change in the amount of the child care costs that would affect the annualized child care amount as determined in the order.
Private school, special needs, activities
Both handled as deviations, and the statute is unusually explicit. 'Extraordinary educational expenses may be added to the presumptive child support as a deviation. Extraordinary educational expenses include, but are not limited to, tuition, room and board, books, fees, and other reasonable and necessary expenses associated with special needs education for a child with a disability under the Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act.' Separately, 'Special expenses incurred for child rearing which can be quantified may be added to the child support obligation as a deviation… Such expenses include, but are not limited to, private school tuition, camp, music or art lessons, travel, school-sponsored extra-curricular activities, such as band, clubs, and athletics.' Factors: a history of spending on the activity, the parents' ability to pay, and whether the child has shown extraordinary aptitude. Scholarships, grants and stipends reduce the amount. If a parent lives with a child with extraordinary medical or other special needs, 'the court must consider all resources available for meeting such needs, including those available from public agencies.' Transportation between the two homes may be divided in proportion to adjusted gross income.
When a judge can depart from the number
The court may deviate if it is in the child's best interests AND either the guideline amount 'is unjust or inappropriate under the circumstances,' both parties are represented by counsel and agreed to something different, or one party is represented and the deviation benefits the unrepresented party. The court 'shall make specific findings of fact' covering the reasons for the deviation, the amount that would have been required under the guidelines, and how the child's best interests are served and why the guidelines would be unjust or inappropriate. There is a hard floor: 'No deviation in the amount of the child support obligation shall be made which seriously impairs the ability of the obligee… to maintain minimally adequate housing, food, and clothing for the children being supported by the order or to provide other basic necessities.'
Two things that catch people out. First, Oklahoma's parenting-time credit has a strange shape: it kicks in only at 121 overnights, and the biggest multiplier — 2.0 — applies in the narrow 121-to-131 band, dropping to 1.5 at 144 or more. Because of how the offset works, a schedule just above 121 nights can move the number sharply. Second, when a child turns 18 and is still in high school, support continues automatically to graduation or age 20 with no hearing needed — but when a child on a multi-child order ages out entirely, nothing happens automatically. The order stays at the same total until someone files. Parents lose real money assuming it steps down by itself.
Later on
When it ends
43 O.S. § 112(E): 'any child shall be entitled to support by the parents until the child reaches eighteen (18) years of age. If a child is regularly enrolled in and attending high school… as a full-time student, the child shall be entitled to support by the parents until the child graduates from high school or until the age of twenty (20) years, whichever occurs first.' Full-time attendance includes regularly scheduled school breaks. Importantly: 'No hearing or further order is required to extend support pursuant to this subsection after the child reaches the age of eighteen (18) years' — it continues automatically.
College and support after 18
Only for disability. Under 43 O.S. § 112.1A the court 'may order either or both parents to provide for the support of a child for an indefinite period' if the child 'requires substantial care and personal supervision because of a mental or physical disability and will not be capable of self-support' and 'the disability exists, or the cause of the disability is known to exist, on or before the eighteenth birthday of the child.' The court may designate a child 18 or older to receive the support directly. There is no general power to order college support.
Changing the amount later
'Child support orders may be modified upon a material change in circumstances which includes, but is not limited to, an increase or decrease in the needs of the child, an increase or decrease in the income of the parents, changes in actual annualized child care expenses, changes in the cost of medical or dental insurance, or when one of the children in the child support order reaches the age of majority.' There is no percentage threshold. But note: 'Modification of the Child Support Guideline Schedule shall not alone be a material change in circumstances.' A child aging out is a material change but does not automatically reduce the order — you still have to go back. Only when the last child ages out does the obligation end automatically, and then only as to future support.
How far back a change can reach
'An order of modification shall be effective upon the date the motion to modify was filed, unless the parties agree to the contrary or the court makes a specific finding of fact that the material change of circumstance did not occur until a later date.' And going backward: 'A child support order shall not be modified retroactively regardless of whether support was ordered in a temporary order, a decree of divorce, an order establishing paternity, modification of an order of support, or other action.'
If someone stops paying
43 O.S. § 114: 'Court-ordered past-due child support payments, court-ordered payments of suit monies and judgments for support… shall draw interest at the rate of two percent (2%) per year.' Past-due payments accruing after the current support order draw interest from the date they become delinquent. 43 O.S. § 115 requires that every order for the support of a minor child, or a modification of one, 'shall contain an immediate income assignment provision' where child support services are being provided.
What we could not confirm
- The Oklahoma courts' own statute website is behind a bot-check we would not go around, so we read Title 43 from the Oklahoma Senate's official published compilation, which was posted in December 2019. The structure of §§ 118A–118I and the § 119 schedule (which tops out at $15,000 of combined gross monthly income, above which the court adds a discretionary amount) has been stable, but there may have been amendments since 2019 that we could not check. Run your numbers through the state's own Excel calculator, which Oklahoma Human Services updated in 2025, and treat that output as the current law.
- 2 official pages we tried to read refused automated access. We did not try to get around the block, so some detail above comes from a different official source rather than the one we would have preferred.
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 Oklahoma. Every figure is quoted from Oklahoma’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.