All parents, regardless of their custodial rights, have a responsibility to support their kids in accordance with children’s needs and the parent’s financial abilities. Child support may be either direct or indirect, and supervised or unsupervised. Ordinarily, a parent’s child support obligation lasts at least until the youngest child reaches 18, marries, or becomes financially independent, but can extend much longer if the child goes to college or otherwise remains reasonably dependent on the custodial parent.

The policy goal of child support law is, to the extent possible, to put the child in the same financial situation he or she would have been in had the parents stayed together. However, this is often difficult or impossible to do, because of the fact that after divorce, the parents lose out on the economic benefits of marriage (shared rent, utility costs, food, etc.), with no corresponding increase in income. Because of this, it is common for both parents to reasonably claim that their particular child support order is both too burdensome for the obligor and yet not enough to cover the basic needs of the child.

Because of the extremely high rate of divorce and single parent births in the United States, the government has become increasingly involved in regulating child support law. Although parents are still generally free to form a child support agreement on their own, the agreement must be reviewed and approved by the presiding judge before it becomes effective. Most states have enacted child support guidelines, many of which are mandatory, and have begun taking an aggressive role in in collecting child support from non-custodial parents. Although each state has its own guidelines, there are several common factors that are considered:

• The actual and potential wage earnings of both parents
• The division of property and debts in the divorce decree
• The lifestyles of the parties and children
• The relative health of the parties and then children
• Cost of living

There are two basic models for child support guidelines, the income shares model and the straight percentage model. Under the income shares model, the incomes of both parents are combined and a total child support entitlement amount is figured. From there, each parent is assigned a pro rata share of the entitlement amount, which the non-custodial parent must actually pay to the custodial parent. In states that use the straight percentage model, only the income of the non-custodial parent is considered, and a straight percentage of that income is paid out as child support. The income shares model is the most typical, although some states have combined the two models into a hybrid version.

Child support orders, like custody orders, are modifiable if there has been a substantial and material change in the circumstances of the parents or children. Often this happens when a parent loses his or her job, or experiences significant changes in cost of living through no fault of their own. Courts will modify orders if the obligor has a legitimate reason for no longer being able to meet his or her child support obligation, but the court will make an inquiry into the circumstances before doing so. In cases where the child support obligor is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, or could be making more money in a different career field, the court is permitted to impute the obligor’s potential salary, and set the child support accordingly.

Frequently, the state or local government will directly oversee the child support payment process. Often this means the court will choose to enter a child support withholding order, through which the child support obligation is automatically taken from the payer's paycheck and delivered to the custodial parent. If the non-custodial parent falls behind or stops paying, the state can use coercive methods to obtain the support, such as withholding money from tax refunds, seizing personal property, or threatening jail time. Inability to pay child support is a justifiable defense, but as with the modification process, a court will likely be skeptical. Despite this, enforcing child support orders and collecting past due amounts remains a difficult problem. Custodial parents who are owed back child support must use the court’s contempt power to collect, which can be a slow and difficult process. Self-help methods are generally not allowed, and it is not permissible to withhold parenting time from a non-custodial parent simply because he or she has not paid child support.

For many couples, the most difficult part of the divorce process is resolving the major issues involving the children, such as where they will live, how they will be raised from that point on, and how much time they will spend with the non-custodial parent. Ideally, these decisions can be made by the parents themselves out of court, as this alternative is much less traumatic for the children. However, when divorcing couples cannot agree on one or more child custody issues, a court will intervene and make a decision based on the child’s best interests.

Child custody law involves two types of parental rights- physical and legal, and they are treated as separate and distinct issues. Physical custody involves the determination of where the child will physically spend most of his or her time. Legal custody, on the other hand, is the right to make decisions about the child’s major life issues, such as its education, health and religion. This type of custody is often shared, whereas physical custody usually goes primarily to one parent, with the other parent getting set parenting time.

When parties cannot agree on a legal or physical child custody arrangement, a court will make the decision for them. This decision will be based on the court’s examination of several factors, and will always be based on the best interests of the child. This means that the court will often give a great deal of weight to the parent who has been the child's primary caretaker up to that point, although that is not the sole issue considered. Other factors typically weighed are:

• The wishes of the child, if the child is old enough to have a preference and communicate it to the court.
• Stability of the new home, school, and community environments.
• Age and sex of the child (very young children are usually awarded to the mother).
• Mental and physical health of the parents, including history of physical, emotional, or substance abuse.
• Opportunity for continued relationship with extended family.

Child custody orders are never permanent, and they can be modified when it would be in the child’s best interests. However, modification is generally only possible when there has been a substantial and material change in the life of the child or one of the parents. This rule exists to discourage constant fighting between the parents over the child custody arrangement, and to promote stability in the lives of the children. Along those lines, custodial parents are typically allowed to move out of the city or state if they have a legitimate reason, even if the move will significantly effect the parenting time of the non-custodial parent.

As with child custody, the visitation rights of the non-custodial parent are decided with the best interests of the child in mind. Except in cases of abuse or neglect, a non-custodial parent is generally entitled to frequent and continuing visitation rights. Again, the details of this contact are preferably left to the parents to work out, but can be determined by a judge. Common visitation schedules may include various weeknights, weekends or every other weekend, alternate holidays and birthdays, and extended time during the summer. Visitation agreements and orders can, and often do, contain specific provisions to add order and stability to the process. Examples of common conditions of visitation are time and place restrictions, designated time and place for pick up and return, whether the visit must be supervised, and conditions on who may or may not be present during the visitation.

In situations where a custodial parent has moved away, it is customary for the non-custodial parent to get longer visits, such as holiday breaks, or even the entire summer vacation. In addition, there is a growing trend toward tailoring more creative custody and visitation arrangements for the benefit of the children. Examples of such newer arrangements are court-ordered visitation time for grandparents, and ordering the parents to move in and out of the family home for their parenting time, instead of moving the children between homes.

Marital property is generally considered to be all property acquired by either party during the marriage, except for gifts, personal injury compensation, and inheritance. In community property states, each spouse is entitled to an undivided one-half interest in this property, regardless of who worked to obtain it. Depending on the circumstances, a court may order one party to hand over cash, property, or other assets to the other, or may order that certain property be sold and the proceeds divided. In addition to valuable marital property, courts are also required to assign marital debt in a divorce decree. And like marital property, marital debt is divided differently depending on the state. Many states only divide debt that was incurred to obtain shared marital property. In other states, all debt that was incurred during the marriage by either party is considered marital property, and will be divided by the court. In dividing the debt, courts consider many of the same factors as property, such as the debt’s purpose, who benefited from the debt, and who is in a better position to pay the debt after divorce.