District of Columbia Child Support

You can seek child support if the child is living with you most of the time. Both parents have a legal obligation to support their child.¹ If you share custody with the other parent, you can still request child support. If you and the other parent both have the child in your care an equal amount of time, a judge may still issue a child support order. In some shared physical custody situations, the parent who earns more money may have to pay child support to the other parent.²

¹ D.C. Code § 16–901(8); D.C. Child Support Services Division website
² D.C. Code § 16-916.01(q)(1), (q)(2)

When you file for child support, the judicial officer can order retroactive child support to cover the prior 24 months before you filed the petition.  The judge can order retroactive support for a longer period if the parent who owes support acted “in bad faith” or if there are other extraordinary circumstances.¹

¹ D.C. Code § 16–916.01(v)(1)

Child support payments are calculated according to the District of Columbia Child Support Guidelines, available on the D.C. Child Support Services Division website. The law includes certain factors that a judge must consider in the calculation, including the:

• gross income of both parents;
• amount of any court-ordered child support paid by either parent for another child;
• cost of the child’s health insurance and extraordinary medical expenses;
• cost of reasonable childcare expenses for the child;
• number of children in the child support case;
• number of other biological or adopted children living in each parent’s home; and
• amount of time the child spends with each parent.¹

A judge must also consider a parent’s ability to provide for his/her own financial support. If a parent with a legal duty to pay support does not have enough income to also support himself/herself, then the judge will decide what is the reasonable amount of child support that parent can pay.² The judge will assume that the parent with limited income can pay $75 a month towards child support, but that amount can change if either parent convinces the judge otherwise.³

For more information on how to get your child support order enforced once you have an order in place, you can go to the D.C. Child Support Services Division website.

¹ D.C. Code § 16–916.01
² D.C. Code § 16–916.01(g)(2)
³ D.C. Code § 16–916.01(g)(3)(A)

If the other parent violates the order, you or the Child Support Services Division can file a motion for contempt of child support order in court. When the non-custodial parent doesn’t obey the instructions in the court order, the court can order him/her to follow it. The other parent can be held in civil contempt if there is an active child support order and you have not received a voluntary child support payment within 60 days. Voluntary payments are payments made by the non-custodial party or his/her employer.

As part of civil contempt, the court can order the non-custodial parent to:

• pay a lump sum amount;
• make scheduled payments; or
• be incarcerated.¹

On the other hand, your case could be eligible for criminal contempt if:

• the non-custodial parent deliberately disobeys the court order;
• all other administrative enforcement actions aren’t successful;
• s/he has not made significant voluntary support payments within three months before the criminal contempt referral date; and
• there is a good faith belief that s/he can pay child support.¹

As part of criminal contempt, the court could order any of the following when a party has deliberately disobeyed a support order:

• a jail term of up to 180 days;
• participation in a rehabilitative program;
• acceptance of appropriate and available employment or participation in job search and placement activities;
• probation; or 
• any other action the judge decides.²

¹ D.C. Child Support Services Division website
² D.C. Code § 46-225.02