Child support in Rhode Island.
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 stateRhode Island
Rhode Island combines both parents' monthly adjusted gross incomes and reads a basic support obligation off a schedule, which each parent then shares in proportion to income. The Family Court sets the schedule itself by administrative order rather than by statute. "The Income Shares Model adopted previously by the Family Court remains the methodology upon which this schedule is developed."
How Rhode Island works out the number
Authority: R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-5-16.2, which directs that support be "based upon a formula and guidelines adopted by an administrative order of the family court"; the current guidelines are Family Court Administrative Order 2023-02 (effective July 1, 2023), which amends the schedule and guidelines of Administrative Orders 2018-02 and 2017-01.The schedule itself "presumes a 'standard' parenting time schedule where the noncustodial parent has the child for at least 20% of the overnight time with the child." Below that, nothing changes. The formal shared-parenting calculation only starts much higher: "In situations where parents enjoy a more liberal parenting time schedule such that each parent has at least a forty-nine percent (49%) share of the time with one or more children Administrative Order 2018-01 provides the guidance for calculating child support under such circumstances." That 49 percent threshold is one of the strictest in the country.
Use the state’s own calculator, not ours
Rhode Island publishes this itself, free. It is called Form FC-78, Child Support Guideline Worksheet (revised July 2023). 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 Rhode Island calculator →What goes into the calculation
What counts as income
The worksheet starts from each parent's monthly gross income; weekly wages are converted by multiplying by 4.3. Required deductions from gross income include pre-existing child support obligations, the health insurance premium or cash medical contribution for the child, support for additional minor dependents ("a deduction not to exceed 50% of the child support obligation for the additional children"), and the parent's share of work-related child care. The court has discretion to allow further deductions for pension and retirement payments, life insurance premiums, a parent's extraordinary medical expenses, tax exemption adjustments, and assigned marital debt payments.
When a judge can treat you as earning more
Rhode Island follows the federal direction to use real circumstances first. Its guidelines confirm the requirement that "states rely on the actual circumstances of the obligated parent whenever reasonably possible over the use of automatic imputation of income," and that "incarceration is not to be deemed to be the equivalent of voluntary unemployment on behalf of the obligor." The statute likewise states that "incarceration may not be treated as voluntary unemployment." The Family Court's own 2023 review found imputation was actually used in 10.20 percent of orders reviewed.
If you do not earn much
The 2023 schedule "incorporates a self-support reserve equivalent to the 2017 federal poverty guidelines for one person but updated to 2022 Federal Poverty Guidelines in the amount of $1,333." That figure is built into the schedule rather than applied as a separate step.
Childcare and health insurance
Neither is inside the schedule: "childcare costs and most health care costs are not included in the schedule." Under Administrative Order 2018-01, the appropriate percentage of child care costs "is now deducted from gross income and also added to the monthly obligation." Health insurance must be provided if available "without cost or at a reasonable cost," and reasonable cost means "5% of the obligor's gross income." If coverage costs more than that, the parent may be ordered to pay cash medical support up to 5 percent of gross income, capped at the actual cost of coverage. One quiet detail: the schedule already builds in "the expense of $250 per child per year for ordinary and routine medical expenses."
Private school, special needs, activities
Not separately scheduled. Private school, special needs and activities are addressed through the court's deviation power under Administrative Orders 2012-05 and 2017-01, where "the Court maintains its authority to exercise broad discretion in deviating from the guidelines."
When a judge can depart from the number
"The guidelines order is presumed to be appropriate." The court may order more or less "when the court finds that the order would be inequitable to the child or either parent," and must make findings of fact. Deviations are rare in practice — the Family Court's own review of 15,350 orders found deviations occurred at a rate of 1.6 percent.
Two things to brace for. Rhode Island's shared-parenting formula does not open up until each parent has 49 percent of the time — a genuine 45/55 split gets you no formula relief at all, only the judge's discretion. And unpaid support here draws 12 percent a year, which is one of the steepest arrears rates in the country; falling behind gets expensive fast.
Later on
When it ends
Support continues until the child turns 18 and has graduated from high school. Under § 15-5-16.2, a court may order support "for children attending high school at the time of their eighteenth (18th) birthday and for ninety (90) days after graduation, but in no case beyond their nineteenth (19th) birthday." Support can be extended for a child with a severe physical or mental disability.
College and support after 18
No college support in the ordinary case. The only extensions past 18 are the high-school-completion window (90 days after graduation, never past the 19th birthday) and support for a severely disabled child.
Changing the amount later
Rhode Island puts a number on it. "A child support order may be modified only if there is a substantial change of circumstances. A substantial change of circumstances shall not have occurred if it results in a new child support order that is less than ten (10%) percent higher or lower than the prior order." The court must "set forth in its decision the specific findings of fact that show a substantial change."
How far back a change can reach
A modification reaches back "only to the date that the adverse party received notice of a petition to modify." Notice, not filing, is the trigger — get the other parent served promptly.
If someone stops paying
Rhode Island's Office of Child Support Services publishes: income withholding within the federal caps (50 percent of earnings if the parent supports other dependents, 55 percent if 12 or more weeks in arrears; 60 percent otherwise, 65 percent if 12 or more weeks in arrears); driver's license suspension under § 15-11.1-1 when a parent is "more than 90 days in arrears in making payments"; interest on arrears at "twelve (12%) percent per annum" under §§ 15-5-16.5 and 9-21-8; federal tax refund intercept at $150 in arrears; and passport denial at $2,500 or more.
What we could not confirm
- Rhode Island's guidelines live across several Family Court administrative orders that build on each other (1987-02, 2012-05, 2017-01, 2018-01, 2018-02 and 2023-02), and some of the older ones are only available as scanned images. The detailed instructions for the 49-percent shared-parenting calculation are in Administrative Order 2018-01, which we could not read directly. Ask the Family Court clerk or your attorney for that order if shared parenting applies to you.
- 1 official page 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 Rhode Island. Every figure is quoted from Rhode Island’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.