[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 45, Volume 2]
[Revised as of October 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 45CFR302.56]

[Page 230-231]
 
                        TITLE 45--PUBLIC WELFARE
 
    CHAPTER III--OFFICE OF CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT (CHILD SUPPORT 
 
PART 302_STATE PLAN REQUIREMENTS--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 302.56  Guidelines for setting child support awards.

    (a) Effective October 13, 1989, as a condition of approval of its 
State plan, the State shall establish one set of guidelines by law or by 
judicial or administrative action for setting and modifying child 
support award amounts within the State.
    (b) The State shall have procedures for making the guidelines 
available to all persons in the State whose duty it is to set child 
support award amounts.
    (c) The guidelines established under paragraph (a) of this section 
must at a minimum:
    (1) Take into consideration all earnings and income of the 
noncustodial parent;
    (2) Be based on specific descriptive and numeric criteria and result 
in a computation of the support obligation; and
    (3) Provide for the child(ren)'s health care needs, through health 
insurance coverage or other means.
    (d) The State must include a copy of the guidelines in its State 
plan.
    (e) The State must review, and revise, if appropriate, the 
guidelines established under paragraph (a) of this section at least once 
every four years to ensure that their application results in the 
determination of appropriate child support award amounts.
    (f) Effective October 13, 1989, the State must provide that there 
shall be a rebuttable presumption, in any judicial or administrative 
proceeding for the award of child support, that the amount of the award 
which would result from the application of the guidelines established 
under paragraph (a) of this section is the correct amount of child 
support to be awarded.
    (g) A written finding or specific finding on the record of a 
judicial or administrative proceeding for the award of child support 
that the application of the guidelines established under paragraph (a) 
of this section would be unjust or inappropriate in a particular case 
shall be sufficient to rebut the presumption in that case, as determined 
under criteria established by the State. Such criteria must take into 
consideration the best interests of the child. Findings that rebut the 
guidelines shall state the amount of support that would have been 
required under the guidelines and include a justification of why the 
order varies from the guidelines.
    (h) As part of the review of a State's guidelines required under 
paragraph (e) of this section, a State must consider economic data on 
the cost of raising

[[Page 231]]

children and analyze case data, gathered through sampling or other 
methods, on the application of, and deviations from, the guidelines. The 
analysis of the data must be used in the State's review of the 
guidelines to ensure that deviations from the guidelines are limited.

(Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control number 
0960-0385)

[50 FR 19649, May 9, 1985; 50 FR 23958, June 7, 1985, as amended at 51 
FR 37731, Oct. 24, 1986; 56 FR 22354, May 15, 1991]