News Release March 9, 2009
Contact:	Steve Davis, Court Communications Officer, (515) 725-8058

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Iowa Supreme Court Adopts New Child Support Guidelines

 

 

Des Moines, March 9, 2009— The Iowa Supreme Court adopted new child support guidelines that will go into effect July 1, 2009.  The new guidelines will provide some significant improvements over the current guidelines, which have been in place for nearly twenty years.

 

The new guidelines are based upon the "pure income shares model of child support."   This model more clearly reflects the fundamental principles that each parent has a duty to support the child, support should correspond to the cost of raising a child, and the level of support should be in proportion to each parent's income.  However, the guidelines provide an adjustment for the support obligations of non-custodial parents whose net income is below the poverty level. The purpose of this adjustment is to leave these parents with enough money to cover their basic living needs after paying child support.

 

In addition, the new guidelines are simpler to use, provide a better way for parents to share the cost of health care insurance premiums and eliminate a quirk in the current guidelines called a "notch" effect, which results in some inconsistent results in cases with parents at either end of an income bracket.

 

The new guidelines are the product of a year-long study by an advisory committee composed of experts in family law, economics, and child support.  As part of its study, the advisory committee compared Iowa's current and new guidelines to the guidelines of other states, reviewed estimates of child-rearing expenses, and considering several other types of economic measures.  Before recommending the new guidelines, the advisory committee reviewed several averaged estimates for child-rearing costs across all income levels. The research showed that a family with one child spent between 25 and 30 percent of the total family income on child-rearing expenditures. For a family with two children, the range increased to between 35 and 44 percent and for a family with three children, the range was between 41 and 52 percent.

 

The committee also studied various principles of low-income adjustment, consistent with the policy of Iowa that every parent contributes to his or her children within the means available. According to the report, a guiding principle is striking a "balance between setting reasonable order amounts for the obligated parent and adequately supporting their children."

 

 In the late 1980s, Congress passed a law requiring all states to have standard guidelines that courts and state agencies must use to set the child support obligations of parents who are divorced or otherwise living apart. Soon after the passage of this federal mandate, the Iowa Legislature delegated the responsibility of creating Iowa's guidelines to the Iowa Supreme Court.  Federal law requires states to review their guidelines every four years.  The Iowa Supreme Court last reviewed Iowa's guidelines in 2004.

 

 

 

 

# # #

2009

Iowa Supreme Court

1111 East Court Avenue

Des Moines, IA  50319

515-281-3952