Establishing Child Support Orders

​​​Child support includes basic support, medical support and child care support.  The child support office or a parent may ask the court to issue a support order.  The court reviews both parents' abilities to provide financial support for their children when ordering a child support obligation. 

The State of Minnesota has an online Guidelines Calculator to help you estimate the amount of child support that the court may order in any given case.  For an accurate estimate, you will need current information about the other parent or caretaker.

Types of support

Basic support
Basic support is for expenses relating to the child's basic needs such as housing, food, clothing, transportation and other expenses relating to the child's care.  Support is determined using both parents monthly gross income, court-ordered parenting time and several other factors as required in state law.  See the Guidelines Calculator for more information.  The basic support obligation does not include payment towards arrears (past-due support).

Medical support
In Minnesota, the court must address medical support. The court may order a parent to do one or more of the following when ordering medical support:

• Provide health care coverage, which may include dental and vision coverage
• Pay support each month toward the cost of health care coverage, medical and dental expenses or to reimburse the government if the child is on medical assistance.
• Pay a portion of uninsured or unreimbursed medical or dental expenses.
  

Child care support
The court may order a parent to pay all or part of, work or school-related child care (day care) expenses.

Past support
Support orders may also address past child support for up to two years. In these situations, a parent may owe past due support​.

More info​​rmation

For more information on child support calculations and establishing a court order, go to the Min​nesota Department of Human Service website.

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