The Federal Child Support Guidelines:
Step-by-Step

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Step 7: dealing with special expenses

The amounts in the tables are a starting point. In many cases, children may have special expenses.

The guidelines define special expenses as expenses that are:

• necessary because they are in a child's best interests, and
• reasonable in relation to the means of the parents and of the child and consistent with the family's spending patterns prior to the separation.

You and the other parent may agree on how to divide payment for special expenses and may agree that an amount should be added to the basic child support amount in the table. In your agreement you can even list special expenses that you expect to incur years later. For example, you may wish to arrange for paying uninsured dental expenses, day care and contributions towards university tuition.

You can consider special expenses when you set child support amounts in sole custody or split custody arrangements.

Special expenses are:

• child-care expenses that a parent with whom the child lives incurs as a result of the parent's job, illness, disability or educational requirements for employment,
• the portion of a parent's medical and dental insurance premiums that provides coverage for the child,
• the child's health-care needs over and above that covered by insurance (for example, orthodontics, counselling, medication, eye care and other items) that exceed $100 per year,
• the child's extraordinary expenses for extracurricular activities,
• the child's extraordinary expenses for primary and secondary education or other educational programs, and,
• the child's expenses for post-secondary education.

The term extraordinary expenses means:

• expenses that are higher than those that the parent requesting an amount for the extraordinary expenses can reasonably cover, in light of that parent's income (including the child support amount), or
• expenses that aren't higher than those that the parent requesting an amount for the extraordinary expenses can reasonably cover, but that are extraordinary taking into account:
  • the income (including child support) of that parent,
  • the nature and number of the programs and extracurricular activities,
  • any special needs and talents of the child,
  • the overall cost of the programs and activities, and
  • any other similar factor that is relevant.

You and the other parent are free to decide if a special expense is reasonable and necessary and how much each of you will contribute to them. As a general rule, you will share in the special expense in proportion to your incomes, but you may agree to any other arrangement. Worksheet 2 at the back of this booklet can help you calculate special expenses.

If you cannot agree about special expenses

If you cannot agree on which special expenses are reasonable and necessary or how to pay for them, either of you may ask a judge to decide, or ask a third party, such as a lawyer or a mediator to help you.

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