GLASTONBURY, CONNECTICUT · FAMILY LAW + FAMILY-VIOLENCE DEFENSE
Connecticut calculates child support from a published schedule, which makes the number look more automatic than it is. Two things complicate it: what counts as income is contested more often than the arithmetic, and the guideline figure is a starting presumption a court can depart from for stated reasons.
There is also a Connecticut wrinkle that catches parents off guard years later — this state allows courts to order parents to contribute toward college, but only if the divorce, legal separation, or annulment judgment either enters an educational support order or expressly reserves the right to seek one later. An order can apply only to a child who has not yet turned 23, and can cover up to four full academic years.
The guidelines were revised effective August 1, 2026. The schedule now runs higher, and the low-income figures changed. Orders and modifications filed on or after that date use the new edition.
Attorney Daniel M. Morton handles child support matters from an office in Glastonbury.
Connecticut uses an income shares model. The premise is that a child should receive roughly the same share of parental income they would have received if the family were intact.
The calculation works in three steps:
Because both incomes go into the calculation, the custodial parent’s earnings affect the result — which is not true in states that use a straight percentage of the paying parent’s income.
Under the edition effective August 1, 2026, the schedule covers combined net weekly incomes from roughly $150 to $6,000, with a self-support reserve of $362 per week protecting low-income obligors. Above the top of the schedule, the court determines support case by case rather than extrapolating.
The 2026 Connecticut Child Support and Arrearage Guidelines are adopted under C.G.S. §46b-215a and set out in Regs. Conn. State Agencies §§46b-215a-1, 46b-215a-2c, 46b-215a-3a, 46b-215a-4b, 46b-215a-5c, and 46b-215a-6. Beyond extending the schedule, they revise the income and deduction rules, the treatment of income above the schedule, the low-income adjustments, and the deviation and income-imputation criteria, and they add provisions and a worksheet for cases involving more than two legally recognized parents.
More than a paycheck. Net income generally starts from all sources — wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, overtime, self-employment income, rental income, and many benefits — and subtracts specified deductions, not every deduction a person actually takes.
Two areas generate most of the disputes:
Bonuses and overtime that recur are income even though they fluctuate. How they get treated — averaged, or handled as a percentage of amounts actually received — is a live question in many cases.
Business income is calculated after ordinary and necessary business expenses, which is not the same as what appears on a tax return. Personal expenses run through a business are a recurring point of contention.
No, and this is the most persistent misunderstanding in Connecticut support cases.
Shared physical custody is a deviation criterion — a reason a court may depart from the guideline number — not an automatic cancellation or a mandatory reduction. A parent seeking a deviation on that basis has to ask for it and justify it, and the court has to make findings.
The reason is that support follows income as much as time. Where parents split time equally but one earns substantially more, the household the children spend half their time in would otherwise be materially poorer than the other. Equal time does not, by itself, address that.
The guideline amount is a rebuttable presumption. A court can order something different, but only on criteria the guidelines recognize and with findings explaining why. Recognized bases include other financial resources available to a parent, extraordinary expenses for the child, shared physical custody, and coordination of total family support.
Two practical notes. “We agreed to something different” is not by itself sufficient — the court reviews agreed support orders against the guidelines. And deviations cut both ways: the same framework that supports a reduction can support an upward departure.
Connecticut is one of a minority of states where a court can order divorced parents to contribute to a child’s higher education. The statute is C.G.S. §46b-56c, and one requirement inside it costs parents real money every year.
The judgment itself must either enter an educational support order or expressly reserve the right to seek one later. If the decree does neither, the ability to come back for one is generally gone — no matter how circumstances change, and no matter how reasonable the request would be. The court is required to tell the parents this at the time.
This is a drafting question at the end of a divorce, not a deadline tied to a birthday.
The order itself has limits:
If you are divorcing and your children are young, this is a paragraph in the judgment that will matter enormously in fifteen years. It costs nothing to reserve the right now.
Support orders address more than the weekly number. The guidelines and C.G.S. §46b-84 require orders for the child’s medical and dental insurance coverage, and unreimbursed medical expenses are typically shared in proportion to income. Qualifying childcare costs are handled similarly.
Unreimbursed medical expenses are among the most-litigated post-judgment issues in Connecticut family court — not because the amounts are large, but because the orders are vague and the reimbursement process breaks down. A well-drafted order specifies how bills get submitted, in what timeframe, and what happens when they aren’t paid.
Generally at 18 — or at 19 if the child is still a full-time high school student living with a parent, whichever comes first.
Support does not stop automatically in every circumstance, and it does not stop simply because a child turns 18 mid-senior-year. Where there are multiple children, the order does not drop proportionally on its own when the oldest ages out; that usually requires a modification.
Connecticut also allows support to continue for a child with a qualifying disability who lives with a parent and depends on that parent for maintenance. For orders entered on or after October 1, 2023, that support can run to age 26; for qualifying orders entered earlier, the limit is 21. The child support guidelines do not apply to these orders.
Support is modifiable. The two routes are a substantial change in circumstances, or a showing that the existing order substantially deviates from the guidelines — with a rebuttable presumption that a deviation of 15% or more is substantial and that a deviation of less than 15% is not.
The timing point that costs people the most: support does not adjust itself. An order stays in force, and arrears keep accruing, until the court changes it. A parent who loses a job in March and files a motion in September owes the original amount for those six months. Filing and serving a motion promptly matters, because a court may — in its discretion — make a modification retroactive only as far back as the date the motion was served. Filing does not guarantee retroactive relief, but waiting forfeits it.
The August 2026 guidelines change matters here too. Where a family’s combined income sat above the old schedule cap, the revised schedule may support a modification.
Unpaid support is enforced through a motion for contempt, income withholding, and other remedies — and a court that finds contempt may order the non-paying parent to pay the other’s attorney’s fees.
Connecticut routes some support matters to the Family Support Magistrate Division, particularly cases receiving state child support services, while others stay on the regular family docket. Which track a case is on affects where it is heard and how it proceeds.
Child support matters for Glastonbury families are heard in the Hartford Judicial District at 90 Washington Street in Hartford, along with the other Hartford district towns — East Hartford, Manchester, South Windsor, West Hartford, Marlborough, and others. Support matters on the IV-D track are heard by a family support magistrate.
Connecticut courts can order divorced parents to pay toward college — but only if the judgment preserves the right. What §46b-56c requires.
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Connecticut’s child support guidelines changed August 1, 2026. How the income shares model works, what the new schedule covers, and when courts deviate.
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Connecticut child support starts from net weekly income. What is included, what can be deducted, and what changed in the 2026 guidelines.
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The guideline figure is a presumption, not a ceiling. When Connecticut courts order something different, and what happens above the schedule.
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Support orders cover more than the weekly number. How Connecticut handles insurance, unreimbursed medical expenses, and childcare.
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When a Connecticut court uses what a parent could earn instead of what they do earn, and the factors the 2026 guidelines require it to consider.
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Connecticut child support generally ends at 18 or 19. The exceptions, including support for an adult child with a disability.
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Daniel M. Morton has been admitted in Connecticut since 2017, with roughly a decade of litigation experience including complex financial matters and contested support cases. He previously served as a staff attorney with Connecticut Legal Services, where he was the principal family-law attorney in the Waterbury office.
Connecticut uses an income shares model: both parents’ net weekly incomes are combined, a basic support obligation is read from the guidelines schedule, and that obligation is divided between the parents in proportion to income.
No. Shared physical custody is a criterion a court may use to deviate from the guideline amount, not an automatic elimination. Support follows income as well as time.
Wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, overtime, self-employment income, rental income, and many benefits, less specified allowable deductions. Self-employment income is calculated after ordinary and necessary business expenses.
Connecticut courts can order parents to contribute toward higher education, but the divorce judgment must either enter the order or expressly reserve the right to seek one later. Costs are capped at what UConn charges a full-time in-state student, and orders end at age 23.
Generally at 18, or at 19 if the child is still a full-time high school student living with a parent. Support may continue longer for a child with a serious disability in defined circumstances.
Yes, on a substantial change in circumstances or where the existing order deviates from the guidelines by 15% or more. Support does not adjust automatically — it changes only when the court changes it, so filing promptly matters.
Every case starts with a conversation about what you’re facing and what it would take to handle it.
