Child Support
KRS 403.213 — a change of 15 percent or more under the guidelines is presumed a material change
A parent, a custodian, or an agency substantially supporting the child may bring an action for child support, where the child or the other parent lives. The guidelines are a rebuttable presumption of the amount, and a court that departs from them must say why in a written or on the record finding.
- Reasons the section lists for departing include a child's extraordinary medical, dental or educational needs, a parent's own extraordinary needs, and a parent's failure to use the ordered timesharing.
- Parents who know the guideline amount may agree to a different one, except where public assistance is being paid for the child.
Support changes only for installments after a motion to modify is filed, and only on a material change that is substantial and continuing. A recalculation that moves the monthly amount by fifteen percent or more is presumed to be one; less than that is presumed not to be.
Support ends at emancipation, unless the child is still a high school student, in which case it continues while the child is in high school but not past the school year in which the child turns nineteen. A parent's death does not end it.
Sources for this section (2)
- KRS 403.211 — Action to establish or enforce child support -- Rebuttable presumption for award -- Allocation of child-care costs and health care expenses -- Order for payment of health care coverage -- Noncustodial parent's health plan -- Attachment of income -- Credit for disability payments
- KRS 403.213 — Criteria for modification of orders for child support and for health care -- Effects of emancipation and death of obligated parent -- Commission to review guidelines
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Kentucky attorney.