Georgia Child Support Worksheet and Schedules A-E: Line by Line

The Georgia Child Support Worksheet is the official form that turns both parents’ incomes into a dollar amount of monthly child support, using the formula in O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15. It works together with five supporting schedules — A, B, C, D, and E — each of which feeds one piece of the calculation into the main worksheet. Subsection (c)(4) states that in all cases the parties shall submit their worksheets and schedules to the court, and subsection (m)(1) provides that the child support worksheet and any schedule prepared for the calculation shall be attached to the final court order or judgment, with an exception for orders entered under O.C.G.A. § 19-13-4. Subsection (c)(6) states that where parents negotiate an amount contrary to the presumptive amount, the court is to reject the agreement if it does not comply with the Code section and does not contain findings of fact supporting a deviation.

This is educational information about how the form works, not legal advice about what any particular worksheet should say. The state’s own tool — the Georgia Child Support Calculator — generates the worksheet and schedules at no charge, and our free calculator shows how the numbers move through the same steps.

How the Worksheet Calculates Support

Georgia uses an “income shares” model. O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(b) lays out the calculation as a numbered sequence, and the worksheet mirrors it step by step:

Gross income. Each parent’s monthly gross income is determined under subsection (f) and entered on Schedule A.
Adjusted income. One-half of self-employment taxes, preexisting orders, and theoretical support for other qualified children are subtracted on Schedule B, leaving each parent’s adjusted income.
Combined adjusted income. The two parents’ adjusted incomes are added together.
Basic Child Support Obligation (BCSO). Combined adjusted income is matched against the number of children on the state’s BCSO table (O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(o)) to find the basic obligation amount.
Pro rata share. Each parent’s adjusted income divided by the combined adjusted income sets that parent’s percentage of the basic obligation.
Parenting time adjustment. The noncustodial parent’s share is adjusted for court-ordered parenting time under subsection (g), using a formula entered on Schedule C.
Presumptive amount. Health insurance premiums and work-related child care are added under subsection (h) on Schedule D, producing the presumptive amount of child support.
Deviations and low-income adjustment. Deviations under subsection (i) are entered on Schedule E, followed by an automatic low-income adjustment under subsection (i.1).
Final amount. Under subsection (b)(10), benefits the child receives under Title II of the federal Social Security Act, or from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, because of the noncustodial parent’s disability are applied against that parent’s final child support amount. Subsection (b)(11) provides that each parent’s final amount, and each parent’s pro rata responsibility for future uninsured healthcare expenses, are entered on the child support worksheet.

Schedule A: Gross Income

Schedule A records each parent’s monthly gross income before taxes or other deductions. O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(f)(1)(A) defines gross income broadly to include salaries, commissions, fees, tips, self-employment income, bonuses, overtime, severance pay, recurring pension or retirement income, interest, dividends, trust income, annuities, capital gains, disability or retirement benefits received from the Social Security Administration under Title II of the federal Social Security Act, and disability benefits received under the federal Veterans’ Benefits Act — a list the statute describes as illustrative rather than exhaustive. Subsection (f)(2) excludes certain items from gross income, including child support received for a child of another relationship and benefits from means-tested public assistance programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, food stamps, and Supplemental Security Income under Title XVI. The Child Support Commission’s training materials list Schedule A’s topic as “Schedule A – Gross Monthly Income.”

Schedule B: Adjustments to Income

Schedule B subtracts three specific items from a parent’s gross income to arrive at adjusted income, as described in O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(a)(2) and (f)(5):

Self-employment taxes. Subsection (f)(5)(A) provides that one-half of the self-employment and Medicare taxes — calculated as 6.2% of self-employment income up to the maximum amount to which federal OASDI applies, plus 1.45% of self-employment income for Medicare — shall be deducted from a self-employed parent’s monthly gross income.
Preexisting child support orders. Subsection (f)(5)(B) provides for an adjustment for current preexisting orders, with priority determined by the date and time the initial order in each case was filed with the clerk of court. The adjustment is allowed only to the extent payments are actually being made, as shown by documentation such as a clerk’s payment history or canceled checks, and the statute caps the credit at an average of the current support actually paid under the preexisting order over the past 12 months prior to the hearing date.
Theoretical support for other qualified children. Subsection (f)(5)(C) states that credits for a parent’s other qualified child living in that parent’s home, for whom the parent owes a legal duty of support, may be considered by the court to reduce the parent’s gross income, and that adjustments may be considered where failing to consider a qualified child would cause substantial hardship to the parent. If the court applies the adjustment, that parent’s basic child support obligation for the other qualified children is multiplied by 75 percent and the result is subtracted from the parent’s monthly gross income and entered on Schedule B. The Commission’s training page lists these same three categories — self-employment taxes paid, pre-existing child support orders, and qualified children — as the topics covered on Schedule B.

Georgia’s Domestic Relations Financial Affidavit is often filed in the same case; our line-by-line DRFA guide walks through that companion form, which asks for similar income and expense detail in a different format.

Schedule C: Parenting Time Adjustment

Schedule C is the newest piece of the Georgia worksheet. Effective January 1, 2026, O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(g) replaced the discretionary “parenting time deviation” with a formula-based parenting time adjustment, which subsection (b)(5.1) places in the calculation sequence and directs to be entered on Schedule C. Per the Commission’s document describing the calculator changes, the user selects which parent is the noncustodial parent on the Basic Information Worksheet tab before using Schedule C, then enters the number of parenting days for the noncustodial parent, and the calculator automatically assigns the remaining days to the custodial parent. That document states that the total number of parenting days must equal 365 and that the noncustodial parent must have 182.5 parenting days or less. Subsection (a)(17.1) defines the parenting time unit of measurement as the number of days a parent spends with a child over a two-year period, expressed as an annual average, counting overnights or, where a parent has shorter but regular and recurring daytime periods, total hours divided by 24.

The formula in § 19-6-15(g)(2)(B) raises each parent’s number of court-ordered days to the power of 2.5, multiplies the noncustodial parent’s exponentiated figure by the custodial parent’s dollar share of the basic obligation and the custodial parent’s exponentiated figure by the noncustodial parent’s dollar share, subtracts the second product from the first, divides that difference by the sum of the two exponentiated day-counts, and adds the result to the noncustodial parent’s basic child support obligation amount. Subsection (g)(1)(B) states that the adjustment could reduce the noncustodial parent’s share of the basic child support obligation to zero, or, in some circumstances where the custodial parent’s gross income exceeds the noncustodial parent’s gross income, increase the custodial parent’s amount of the basic obligation above the noncustodial parent’s. Under subsection (g)(1)(C), the adjustment is used only to account for court ordered parenting time; where there is no court order awarding parenting time, the statute directs the court to determine the obligation without it.

Schedule D: Additional Expenses

Schedule D adds two costs on top of the basic obligation, under O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(h):

Health insurance premiums. Subsection (h)(2)(B)(i) provides that only the amount of the health insurance cost attributable to the child who is the subject of the order is included, and subsection (h)(2)(B)(iii) directs that the total cost of the child’s premium be divided between the parents pro rata. Under subsection (h)(2)(B)(ii), if coverage applies to other persons and the amount attributable to the child is not verifiable, the total premium is divided by the number of persons covered by the policy and the result multiplied by the number of children for whom support is being determined who are covered by that policy.
Work-related child care costs. Subsection (h)(1)(A) provides that work related child care costs necessary for a parent’s employment, education, or vocational training, and determined by the court to be appropriate, are averaged for a monthly amount and entered on Schedule D. Subsections (h)(1)(C) and (D) state that the value of child care a parent provides personally, or that is provided without charge, is not an adjustment to the basic child support obligation.

Adding these two costs to the pro-rata basic obligation produces what the statute calls the “presumptive amount of child support.”

Schedule E: Deviations and Required Findings

Schedule E is where a court or jury records a departure from the presumptive amount, if a deviation applies. O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(i)(2) lists specific grounds: high income, other health related insurance (vision or dental), life insurance, the child and dependent care tax credit, travel expenses, alimony, mortgage or shelter provided by the noncustodial parent, permanency or foster care plans, and extraordinary expenses — a category covering extraordinary educational expenses, special expenses incurred for child-rearing such as summer camp, music or art lessons, and school-sponsored extracurricular activities, and extraordinary medical expenses. For special child-rearing expenses, subsection (i)(2)(I)(ii) provides that when such expenses exceed 7 percent of the basic child support obligation, the additional amount is considered as a deviation to cover the full amount of those expenses. Subsection (i)(2)(A) treats parents as high-income parents when their combined adjusted gross income exceeds $40,000.00 per month; for those parents the statute directs the court to set the basic child support obligation at the highest amount allowed by the table, and the court or jury may consider an upward deviation. Subsection (i)(3) also describes “nonspecific deviations” for reasons beyond those listed, where the court or jury finds it is in the best interest of the child.

Whatever deviation is claimed, § 19-6-15(c)(2)(E) and (i)(1)(B) call for written findings of fact — or special interrogatory findings — stating the reasons for the deviation, the amount of child support that would have been required if the presumptive amount had not been rebutted, how application of the guidelines would be unjust or inappropriate considering each parent’s relative ability to provide support, and how the child’s best interest is served by the deviation. Subsection (i)(1)(C) adds that no deviation shall be made which seriously impairs the custodial parent’s ability to maintain minimally adequate housing, food, and clothing for the child and to provide other basic necessities.

The low-income adjustment, previously handled as a deviation, has also changed. Effective January 1, 2026, O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(i.1) provides that where a parent’s monthly adjusted gross income is less than the highest amount of monthly adjusted gross income shown in the low-income adjustment table in subsection (p), that parent’s child support obligation is the lesser of the parent’s presumptive amount or the amount determined using the table, and that the calculator performs the comparison automatically. The Commission’s document on the change describes the adjustment as a failsafe against an obligation exceeding 19%, 24%, 25%, 26%, 27%, or 28% of a parent’s adjusted gross income in cases with one through six children respectively.

Ready to see how your own numbers run through these schedules? Our free child support calculator walks through the same basic obligation, pro rata, and additional-expense steps described above.

What Recently Changed

Georgia’s worksheet and schedules have changed twice in the past two years under Senate Bill 454:

Effective July 1, 2024: the Basic Child Support Obligation table was updated for the first time since it was created in 2006, reflecting recommendations from the economist who conducted Georgia’s 2022 economic study. The Commission states that the table’s vertical axis — the parents’ combined monthly income — increased from $30,000 to $40,000, and that cases in which combined adjusted gross income exceeds $40,000.00 are accordingly eligible for a possible high-income deviation. SB 454 also permits VA disability benefits paid to a custodial parent or nonparent custodian for the benefit of a child, based on the noncustodial parent’s VA disability, to offset the noncustodial parent’s obligation; the Commission added data field #16(b) and a new worksheet line for that credit. Per the Commission, worksheets created before July 1, 2024 continue to reflect the previous table amounts, and updating one requires copying that worksheet and reopening it.
Effective January 1, 2026: the parenting time deviation was removed and replaced with the Schedule C parenting time adjustment, and the low-income deviation was removed and replaced with the low-income adjustment described above.

Which version applies depends on when the worksheet is created. The Commission’s SB 454 statement says the old Excel version of the child support calculator should never be used, because the BCSO amounts it produces are wrong as of July 1, 2024.

FAQ

Does the statute require the official online calculator, or can the PDF be filled in by hand?
O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(m) provides that the schedules and worksheets are prepared by the parties and that the worksheet and schedules are promulgated by the Georgia Child Support Commission; the statute does not name a particular piece of software. Subsections (b)(8) and (i.1) do describe the low-income adjustment as a step the Georgia Child Support Calculator performs automatically. The Commission’s SB 454 statement says the old Excel version of the calculator should never be used, because the BCSO amounts it produces are wrong as of July 1, 2024.

What counts as “gross income” for an irregularly paid or self-employed parent?
O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(f)(1)(A) lists income from self-employment, bonuses, overtime payments, and severance pay alongside salaries, and states that gross income includes all income from any source, earned or unearned. Subsection (f)(5)(A) provides the Schedule B deduction for one-half of the self-employment and Medicare taxes.

Why is there a new Schedule C in 2026?
Effective January 1, 2026, O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(g) sets out a formula-based parenting time adjustment entered on Schedule C. The Commission’s document on the calculator changes describes this as removing the parenting time deviation, which was previously claimed on Schedule E, and replacing it with the adjustment.

What does the statute say about combined income over $40,000 a month?
The BCSO table in subsection (o) ends at $40,000.00 in combined adjusted gross income. Under § 19-6-15(i)(2)(A), parents whose combined adjusted gross income exceeds $40,000.00 per month are considered high-income parents; the statute directs the court to set the basic child support obligation at the highest amount allowed by the table, and the court or jury may consider an upward deviation entered on Schedule E.

Does the worksheet decide healthcare costs for the child?
Schedule D accounts for the health insurance premium attributable to the child and work related child care costs. Under subsection (h)(3)(A), future uninsured healthcare expenses are divided pro rata unless the court orders otherwise, and the statute states they shall not be used for the purpose of calculating the amount of child support.

If you want a broader walkthrough of how Georgia child support cases are put together, including how the worksheet fits with the rest of your filing, the book Navigating Child Support covers the process for self-represented parents in more depth.

This article explains how the Georgia Child Support Worksheet and Schedules A through E are structured under state law and Child Support Commission guidance. It is educational information, not legal advice, and it does not predict how any particular court will rule. Every case is different — for guidance on your specific situation, consult a licensed Georgia attorney.

Sources

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