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The Massachusetts Trial Court has announced new Child Support Guidelines, which will take effect on December 1, 2025. These guidelines govern how child support is calculated across the Commonwealth. They provide a standardized framework for determining the amount of financial support one parent must pay to the other for the benefit of their children. While judges retain discretion to deviate when circumstances warrant, the guidelines create a presumptive support amount in every case involving children. Every four years, a court-appointed task force reviews the guidelines to ensure they remain fair, consistent with economic realities, and responsive to changes in family life. The 2025 revisions mark the most significant update since 2021, reflecting cost-of-living adjustments, evolving family structures, and new developments in Massachusetts law.
A Broader and Clearer Definition of Income
The 2025 Guidelines reaffirm that child support should reflect both parents' ability to contribute to their child's needs. The definition of "income" remains intentionally broad and now expressly includes emerging sources such as digital assets and other nontraditional forms of compensation. The new version also clarifies that certain alimony payments may be counted as income when determining support. Additionally, the guidelines now make clear that incarceration cannot be treated as voluntary unemployment, a clarification consistent with federal law. This prevents courts from attributing income to an incarcerated parent unless there is actual evidence of earnings or assets.
Updated Income Levels and Support Ranges
Economic conditions and inflation have led to revisions to both the minimum and maximum income thresholds used in calculating support. The maximum combined parental income considered by the guidelines has increased from $400,000 to $450,000 per year. For families whose combined income exceeds that amount, judges retain discretion to set support at appropriate levels, using the guideline amount as a baseline. At the other end of the spectrum, for payors earning up to $301 per week, the presumptive minimum child support order will be no more than $15 per week. For payors earning between $302 and $391 per week, the presumptive order will be no more than $33 per week. These thresholds are tied to the 2025 Federal Poverty Guidelines, ensuring that low-income parents are not ordered to pay more than they can reasonably afford.
Parenting Time and Evolving Family Structures
The new guidelines also provide additional flexibility for families whose parenting arrangements don't fit neatly into the traditional "shared" or "primary residence" categories. Courts may deviate where appropriate, particularly in situations where one parent has substantially more or less parenting time than the standard one-third or one-half framework. Moreover, for the first time, the guidelines account for situations in which a child may have more than two legal parents, reflecting recent changes to Massachusetts parentage law. While these cases remain rare, the guidelines now explicitly recognize that courts must evaluate financial responsibilities equitably among all legal parents.
Rising Child Care and Medical Costs
Recognizing the steep increase in the cost of child care across Massachusetts, the 2025 Guidelines raise the benchmark for reasonable child care costs from $355 to $430 per week, per child. This adjustment better reflects the current average cost of center-based infant care in the Commonwealth. The new Guidelines also clarify what qualifies as "child care" for purposes of calculating support. Expenses that are necessary to allow a parent to work, attend school, or complete job training are treated differently from optional programs like summer camps, sports, or enrichment classes. That distinction matters, because only work- or education-related care can be built directly into the support calculation, while discretionary activities are typically considered separately. When it comes to dividing child care costs between parents, the Guidelines suggest an income-based approach rather than a simple 50/50 split. In most cases, courts will apportion these costs in proportion to each parent's income. Judges also have flexibility to account for who pays the costs up front, who claims the dependent care tax credit, and whether a parent's employment or training truly depends on that care being available.
The guidelines also address the growing burden of out-of-pocket medical expenses, particularly given the rise in high-deductible health insurance plans. Courts are now encouraged to allocate these expenses in proportion to each parent's income, rather than automatically dividing them equally. This approach recognizes that a proportional split is often more equitable when one parent earns significantly more than the other. Importantly, the guidelines acknowledge that some medical or dental costs may be extraordinary in nature—for example, expenses related to a child's ongoing therapy, orthodontia, surgery, or specialized medical care. In such cases, judges may consider whether those costs should be treated as extraordinary medical expenses and apportioned differently. Depending on the circumstances, a court might order that one parent bear a greater share, or that reimbursement occur on a case-by-case basis, rather than through a flat percentage applied to all bills.
This clarification gives judges more discretion to tailor outcomes to the realities of each family's financial and medical circumstances, rather than applying a one-size-fits-all rule.
Contributions to College and Post-Secondary Education
For children over 18, Massachusetts courts continue to have discretion to extend child support and/or order parental contributions toward college or post-secondary educational expenses. The 2025 Guidelines reaffirm that no parent can be ordered to pay more than 50% of the in-state undergraduate cost at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, unless the court makes written findings that a higher contribution is reasonable.
As of the 2025–2026 academic year, that benchmark cost is $37,015, which includes tuition, fees, housing, meals, and books. Judges are also instructed to consider affordability, including whether parents would need to use assets or borrow funds to meet their share of expenses.
Clarifying the Relationship Between Alimony and Child Support
One of the most complex and widely discussed issues in recent years has been how alimony and child support interact. The 2025 Guidelines now expressly incorporate the Supreme Judicial Court's decision in Cavanagh v. Cavanagh (490 Mass. 398, 2022), which established a structured three-step process for judges to follow when both forms of support are at issue.
Under Cavanagh, a judge must:
- Calculate alimony first, then calculate child support using the parties' post-alimony incomes.
- Calculate child support first, then calculate alimony based on the resulting incomes.
- Compare both results and determine which approach produces the fairest overall outcome for the family.
This requirement ensures that support orders are equitable and transparent, and that children are supported as completely as possible without unfairly burdening either parent. The formal inclusion of the Cavanagh process in the 2025 Guidelines is expected to bring greater consistency to cases across the state, while giving judges flexibility to tailor results to the specific financial realities of each family.
What This Means for Massachusetts Parents
The 2025 Guidelines do not change the underlying purpose of child support, but they modernize how it is calculated to reflect today's economic and social realities. For parents with existing child support orders, these updates may justify a review once the new rules take effect in December 2025. Even small adjustments to income thresholds, child care costs, or parenting schedules can lead to meaningful changes in the support amount.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
