Massachusetts 2025 Child Support Guidelines

The Massachusetts Probate and Family Court is required by law, once every four years, to convene a task force to review and possibly revise the Child Support Guidelines. This was last completed in 2021 (with a slight revision in 2023).

The new 2025 Child Support Guidelines are now available and will be effective in all cases starting December 1, 2025. The part of the guidelines most people will be interested in will be the actual calculation worksheets. There is a web version and also a downloadable PDF version. 

The 2025 Child Support Guidelines are not a major departure from the 2021 Child Support Guidelines. Below are the major highlights.

Minimum Support Payments

In the 2021 Child Support Guidelines, the task force created 2 minimum tranches of payors who have minimal income. The first minimum was for payors making less than $210/week. They would may no more than $12/week in child support. For payors making $211 to $249/week, the minimum order is $12/week plus 20% above $210, which calculates to about $12 to $20/week.

The new 2025 Child Support Guidelines have modified the tranches for low income payors to adjust for inflation.  For those payors making less than $301/week, their child support order will be no more than $15/week. For payors whose income is between $302 and $391/week, child support will be no more than $33/week.

Child Support Guidelines Worksheet Limit

The 2025 Child Support Guidelines can now calculate child support on parents’ combined income up to $450,000.  In the 2021 Child Support Guidelines, the worksheet only were able to calculate child support on a combined $400,000 of income for both parents.

Base Child Support Amount

In the 2021 Child Support Guidelines, created minimum support payments for payors in the low-income range and also a cap for high income parents at the $400,000 per year range. The 2025 Child Support Guidelines maintains this distribution but adjusts it based upon the new lower income levels and raising the higher income levels to $450,000. They then recalibrated the Table A child support amounts for 1 child connecting these new limits but generally trying to maintain the same amount of child support for most families. Therefore, the changes in the base child support amount is minimal.  In addition, the task force did not change the multiplier for 2+ children. Therefore, the actual amount of child support for most families will not change much from the 2021 to the 2025 Child Support Guidelines. 

The task force and economic consultants were keen to recognize that Massachusetts has a high cost of living but also our child support guidelines are also amongst the highest in the nation.

Children over 18 years of Age

There were some inconsistencies and disputes about how to calculate child support for children at or over the age of 18 but who were still in high school. In the 2021 Child Support Guidelines, once a child reaches age 18, the child support guidelines applied a 25% reduction of the support amount. The new 2025 Child Support Guidelines makes it specific that if a child is at or over the age of 18 but who is still attending high school, when running the child support guidelines worksheet, should be considered under the age of 18 for guidelines purposes.

Contribution to College

The 2025 Child Support Guidelines does not change the previous guideline recommendation that a judge is only allowed to order a parent to pay up to ½ of the undergraduate, in-state resident costs of tuition for the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, absent a specific finding by the trial judge that a parent can afford to pay and should pay beyond that amount. However, the specific language that has been inserted gives guidance to judges that after a child is over the age of 18 and in college, a judge may do one of 3 things: (1) order both child support and contribution to college, or (2) order only child support, or (3) order only contribution to college.

A judge may order a lower than guidelines amount of child support (downwards deviation) should they consider if the child is residing at home or away from school and how much each parent is contributing to the cost of college education.

Adjustment to Child Care Deduction

In the 2021 Child Support Guidelines, the task force eliminated a direct deduction of child care costs from each parents’ income. Instead, the task force felt that the parents should be sharing the actual costs of child care paid in proportion to their income, up to a benchmark of $355 per child, per week. This was supported by economic data regarding the average cost of center-based infant care in Massachusetts. 

The 2025 Child Support Guidelines maintains this idea of direct contribution by each parent to child care but increases the benchmark to $430 per child, per week. The task force justified this increase amount based upon economic data that since 2021, child care costs in Massachusetts have increased by 26% and have outpaced inflation.

The task force also clarified when a summer camp or other extra activity qualifies as child care rather than an extracurricular activity (which generally falls outside of the guidelines). The task force listed factors for the consideration including the need for the activity or camp including whether the activity or camp is necessary to provide supervision for the child so that the parent claiming the cost could work, the age and maturity of the child, the time during which the services are provided, and the specific nature of the services at the activity or camp.

On a whole, the 2025 Child Support Guidelines are not a major departure from the 2021 Child Support Guidelines. For most families, it’s important to note that the base amount of child support for one child has increased slightly, but the multiplier for two or more children has not changed. For most families, the change in child support, if all else remains the same, will increase only very slightly.

If you have questions about whether you should be seeking a modification of your child support order, call our office to schedule a free phone consultation with us.

Contact a Massachusetts Child Support Lawyer today

It’s important to note that existing child support orders are not automatically changed to comply with the new guidelines unless the parties specifically agree to recalculate child support within the terms of an agreement. In order to obtain a new child support order, you must file a modification with the court.

If you have more questions about how the new child support guidelines might affect your child support, you should contact a Massachusetts child support lawyer who can make recommendations on modifications to your child support plan.