Childcare in a Rhode Island Divorce or Rhode Island Child Support Modification is usually a component of the calculation of Rhode Island Child Support. Childcare costs are not, however, calculated into the figure that you arrive at by computing the parent's gross incomes and assigning to the non-placement parent his or her percentage of the monthly child support.
The Childcare figure is "in addition" to the standard Rhode Island Child Support Guidelines calculation. The figure itself can be comprised of any number of things. In many cases, the placement parent can provide proof of the cost of a daycare and that amount is used if the child is enrolled or enrollable in the program and the non-placement parent agrees that it is a suitable facility.
In other cases the childcare cost added to the child support guidelines can be arrived at by an average of the costs of facilities researched by both parents.
If childcare is necessary for the placement parent to be able to work, then typically the undertaking of insuring that there is child care available falls to the placement parent by necessity. However, because of this natural tendency the placement parent often believes that he or she has the "final say" on the facility to be used for the child because he or she may have done the initial work.
This is not truly the case however. Rather, childcare is a crucial aspect of the minor child's life and falls, or arguably should fall within the the area of legal custody. Therefore, the non-placement parent most assurely should have a say in both the quality and the reasonableness of the facility that the parents child should be educated or cared for in.
Perhaps the greatest abuse results from placement parents who have child support and child care costs garnished and then subsequently the placement parent removes the child from the program to obtain a weekly financial windfall from the non-placement parent.
One way to counteract this abuse by placement parents is to insure that the child care costs are paid by court order directly to the program provider and not to the placement parent. An alternative is also to pay the childcare monies to the placement parent so long as the child remains enrolled in the program.
Either way, abuses are avoided and the same result is achieved.
Authored by:
Christopher A. Pearsall, Esquire
PEARSALL LAW ASSOCIATES
571 Pontiac Avenue
Cranston, RI 02910
Phone: (401) 354-2369
Attorney Pearsall's practice is focused almost exclusively in the areas of Divorce and Family law.
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