Missouri child support law has changed substantially in recent years. Previously, if the divorcing parents could not agree on child support, the court set the amount based on factors listed in the statutes, and there was a great degree of variability in the amounts awarded.

Several years ago, in response to federal mandates, Missouri adopted a system for establishing a "presumed child support amount" based on factors including the income of the parents and the number of children involved. This presumed child support amount is calculated on a form known as "Form 14."

Form 14 appears on a linked sub-page, and the official instructions for its use and the child support chart are on further sub-pages linked to the Form 14 page.

Arriving at the correct amount on Form 14 requires careful attention to the instructions and selection of the correct income amount from the chart, and consultation with an attorney is strongly advised.

While the amount calculated on Form 14 provides a strong indication of the child support that might be ordered in a particular case, it should be understood that the amount resulting from Form 14 is only "presumed" to be the correct amount, and the court has the power to increase or decrease the amount depending on other factors involved in the particular case. The party expecting to pay child support often argues for a reduction from the presumed amount, whereas the party expecting to receive child support often argues for an increase.

Some of the factors the court can consider in deviating from the presumed child support amount calculated on Form 14 are set out in the Form 14 instructions. Other factors the court can consider in deviating from the Form 14 amount were set out in the statutes before the advent of the Form 14 procedure and remain valid considerations:

According to the child support statute, the obligation to pay child support continues until the child:

It is important to note that a child attending a post-secondary educational program must meet certain reporting requirements in order to be entitled to continue receiving child support. For the first semester, the child must provide to the parent paying child support a verification of enrollment from the school.  At the beginning of each succeeding semester, the child must provide to the parent paying child support a transcript or similar official document provided by the institution of vocational or higher education which includes the courses the child is enrolled in and has completed for each term, the grades and credits received for each such course, and an official document from the institution listing the courses which the child is enrolled in for the upcoming term and the number of credits for each such course. The Missouri Supreme Court has held that if a child does not comply with these reporting requirements for a particular semester, then no support is owed for that semester, but that support will be owed for other earlier or later semesters if the reporting requirements are met for those semesters.

Upon the request of a child attending a post-secondary educational program or the parent paying support, the court may direct that the support be paid directly to the child instead of the custodial parent.

The obligation to pay child support for a particular child abates (is temporarily suspended) when the child stays with the parent obligated to pay support for more than 30 consecutive days with the consent of the other parent.

A court may consider ordering a parent to waive the right to claim the tax dependency exemption for a child enrolled in an institution of vocational or higher education in favor of the other parent if the application of state and federal tax laws and eligibility for financial aid will make an award of the exemption to the other parent appropriate.

A crucial point to note is that the obligation of one parent to pay child support is independent of the other parent’s obligation to allow visitation. In other words, it is not permissible to withhold child support payments because visitation is denied. However, a parent being denied visitation can ask the court to order child support abated or eliminated because of the denial of visitation, or even to change custody.

Interstate child support issues (where a child lives in a state other than the one where the paying paying support lives) can be very complicated. Such cases are generally governed by the "Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Law" and the "Uniform Interstate Family Support Act," both of which are contained in Chapter 454 of the Missouri Revised Statutes (almost all other states have also adopted these laws). Two important questions that typically arise in these situations are:

If you are involved in an interstate child support case, prompt consultation with an attorney is strongly recommended. If you are served with a lawsuit filed in a court in another state which seeks to modify child support, it is not safe to simply assume that you do not need to respond because it is possible that a binding "default" judgment could be entered against you.

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