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Title 42 — The Public Health and WelfareRelease 119-73

§667 State guidelines for child support awards

Title 42 › Chapter CHAPTER 7— - SOCIAL SECURITY › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER IV— - GRANTS TO STATES FOR AID AND SERVICES TO NEEDY FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN AND FOR CHILD-WELFARE SERVICES › Part Part D— - Child Support and Establishment of Paternity › § 667

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

States must create rules that set child support amounts so their State plan can be approved. The rules can come from a law, a court, or an agency and must be reviewed at least once every 4 years to make sure they give appropriate support amounts. Judges and other officials must have the guidelines. In court or agency cases, the guideline amount is assumed to be correct unless a written or on‑the‑record finding under the State’s criteria shows using them would be unjust or inappropriate. The Secretary will give technical help, and each State must send the Secretary a copy of its guidelines.

Full Legal Text

Title 42, §667

The Public Health and Welfare — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Each State, as a condition for having its State plan approved under this part, must establish guidelines for child support award amounts within the State. The guidelines may be established by law or by judicial or administrative action, and shall be reviewed at least once every 4 years to ensure that their application results in the determination of appropriate child support award amounts.
(b)(1)The guidelines established pursuant to subsection (a) shall be made available to all judges and other officials who have the power to determine child support awards within such State.
(2)There shall be a rebuttable presumption, in any judicial or administrative proceeding for the award of child support, that the amount of the award which would result from the application of such guidelines is the correct amount of child support to be awarded. A written finding or specific finding on the record that the application of the guidelines would be unjust or inappropriate in a particular case, as determined under criteria established by the State, shall be sufficient to rebut the presumption in that case.
(c)The Secretary shall furnish technical assistance to the States for establishing the guidelines, and each State shall furnish the Secretary with copies of its guidelines.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1988—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 100–485, § 103(b), inserted “, and shall be reviewed at least once every 4 years to ensure that their application results in the determination of appropriate child support award amounts” before period at end. Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 100–485, § 103(a), designated existing provisions as par. (1), struck out “, but need not be binding upon such judges or other officials” after “within such State”, and added par. (2).

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1988 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 100–485 effective one year after Oct. 13, 1988, see section 103(f) of Pub. L. 100–485, set out as a note under section 666 of this title.

Effective Date

Pub. L. 98–378, § 18(b), Aug. 16, 1984, 98 Stat. 1322, provided that: “The amendment made by subsection (a) [enacting this section] shall become effective on October 1, 1987.” Study of Child-Rearing Costs Pub. L. 100–485, title I, § 128, Oct. 13, 1988, 102 Stat. 2356, directed Secretary of Health and Human Services, by grant or contract, to conduct a study of patterns of expenditures on children in 2-parent families, in single-parent families following divorce or separation, and in single-parent families in which parents were never married, giving particular attention to the relative standards of living in households in which both parents and all of the children do not live together, and submit to Congress no later than 2 years after Oct. 13, 1988, a full and complete report of results of such study, including recommendations for legislative, administrative, and other actions.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

42 U.S.C. § 667

Title 42 — The Public Health and Welfare

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73