How to Calculate Child Support Payments in South Dakota

How to Use the South Dakota Child Support Calculator

To calculate the amount of support under South Dakota's current child support guidelines, you may be able to use the official South Dakota Child Support Calculator.

Before you get started, you’ll need to know which parent will have primary physical custody (or “parenting time”) of your children. The calculator won’t work for you if you’ll have shared parenting, meaning that each parent will have the children at least 180 overnights a year.

You’ll also need to have some basic financial information on hand before using the calculator, including both parents’ income, contributions to a qualified retirement plan (up to 10% of gross income), medical insurance payments for the children’s coverage, and payments under other support orders.

The online calculator will give you an estimate of the noncustodial parent’s monthly child support obligation. But you’ll need to complete and submit an actual child support obligation worksheet when you apply for child support (more on that below). You can find links to download the worksheet, as well as the current child support schedule and the separate worksheet for shared parenting, on the South Dakota Child Support Obligations page.

Learn more about how child support works in South Dakota, including what counts as income and when judges may calculate support based on a parent's "imputed" income rather than actual income.

When Child Support May Be Different Than the Guideline Calculation

South Dakota presumes that the amount calculated under the guidelines is appropriate. But you may argue that a different amount would be more appropriate in your case for one of the reasons spelled out in the guidelines. Those reasons include:

• Either parent’s financial condition would make the guideline support amount unfair. The judge will presume that the guideline amount imposes a financial hardship on a noncustodial parent if it’s more than 50% of that parent’s net income.
• The child has special educational or health needs that require a higher amount of support.
• The parents have agreed to extra forms of support for the child’s benefit.
• The noncustodial parent is has voluntary and unreasonable actions leading to unemployment or underemployment (which could justify imputing income to that parent, as discussed above).

When a parent is seeking to modify the existing amount of child support (more on that below), a deviation from the guidelines may also be allowed based on:

• the income of a parent's new spouse, or someone else's contribution to the parent's income or expenses (but only if using the guideline amount work result in a financial hardship for either parent), or
• either parent's obligation to support children from a subsequent relationship.

(S.D. Codified Laws § 25-7-6.10 (2024).)

How to Apply for Child Support in South Dakota

Typically, you'll apply for child support as part of the process of filing for divorce in South Dakota. You'll include your completed child support worksheets along with the other divorce papers.

Outside of the divorce context, you may get help with requesting support by requesting services from the Division of Child Support (DCS) in the South Dakota Department of Social Services. If needed, the DCS can also help establish the child’s legal paternity (parentage) or locate a missing parent.

How to Pay and Collect Child Support in South Dakota

Most child support is paid through income withholding. That way, the support payments are automatically taken out of the paycheck of the parent who owes support. If income withholding isn’t possible or appropriate (such as when a parent is self-employed), the South Dakota DCS offers various other ways to make support payments.

The DCS can also help if you're having trouble collecting child support. Depending on how much the other parent owes, the agency has several ways of enforcing child support, including reporting the debt to credit bureaus, intercepting income tax refunds, withholding from workers’ compensation or unemployment benefits, seizing money from bank accounts, placing liens on property (so the delinquent parent can’t sell it or borrow money before paying off the debt), suspending the parent’s driver’s or other licenses, and filing a motion to have the delinquent parent found in contempt of court.

How to Change the Amount of Child Support

Either parent may request a modification in the amount of child support in South Dakota. You’ll need to provide evidence demonstrating that there’s been a change of circumstances since your existing support order was issued or last modified, unless it’s been at least three years since then, or the order was issued before July 1, 2022. (S.D. Codified Laws §§ 25-7-6.13, 25-7A-22 (2024).)