New Georgia Child Support Law: Tables, Pregnancy, Parenting Time

The new Georgia child support law, Senate Bill 454, was signed on May 6, 2024, and makes three substantive changes to how support is calculated: it updates the obligation tables courts use to set monthly payments, it lets a court order a father to help cover pregnancy and birthing expenses before the child is born, and it adds a formal parenting time adjustment that takes effect January 1, 2026.¹ Every new order issued after the effective dates uses these rules, and parents with existing orders have grounds to petition for a modification if the updated guidelines would meaningfully change their number.

Updated Obligation Tables

The revised child support obligation table, codified in subsection (o) of O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15, recalibrates the baseline dollar amounts courts plug into the income shares formula. The table now covers combined adjusted gross incomes from $800 per month up to $40,000 per month, with separate obligation amounts for one through six children.¹ The updated figures reflect more current data on what families actually spend raising children at different income levels, which generally pushes obligations upward compared to the older schedules.

The table produces a presumptive amount. When parents’ combined income exceeds $40,000 per month, the court sets the basic obligation at the highest amount in the table but may deviate upward if the child’s best interests warrant it.¹ The cap does not automatically let high earners off the hook for a higher figure; it just requires the judge to justify going above it.

Support for Pregnancy and Birthing Expenses

The most talked-about change is in O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(a.1), which treats an unborn child with a detectable heartbeat as a “child” for support purposes. A court can now order the father to contribute to medical and pregnancy-related costs before the baby is born.¹

Prenatal support is capped at the amount of direct medical and pregnancy-related expenses the mother actually incurs. That includes out-of-pocket costs such as copays, deductibles, lab work, ultrasounds, prescription medications, and hospital charges tied to the pregnancy and delivery. Once the child is born, the full child support guidelines apply.¹ If you plan to ask a court to reimburse these expenses, keep every bill, receipt, and insurance explanation of benefits from the first prenatal visit through delivery. Without documentation of the actual amounts spent, there is nothing to cap the order to.

Parenting Time Adjustment Starting January 1, 2026

Beginning January 1, 2026, Georgia’s guidelines include a built-in parenting time adjustment that reduces the noncustodial parent’s basic support obligation based on the amount of court-ordered time spent with the child. This is a structural change, not a cosmetic one. Under the prior framework, parenting time was handled as a discretionary deviation the judge could grant or refuse; under the updated statute, it is a formal step in the calculation itself.²

Parenting time is measured by counting the days a parent spends with the child over a two-year period and producing an annual average. A “day” typically means one overnight. When a parent has shorter but regular daytime periods without overnights, the total hours of parenting time in the annual average are divided by 24 to produce an equivalent figure.² The adjustment is entered on the Child Support Schedule C worksheet and directly reduces the noncustodial parent’s share of the basic obligation. For parents with substantial custody time whose financial contribution did not previously reflect the expenses they were already covering, this is where the biggest dollar impact will show up.

Modifying an Existing Order Under the New Law

If you already have a Georgia child support order, the updated law gives you grounds to seek a modification, particularly once the parenting time adjustment takes effect in January 2026. You file a Petition for Modification with the Clerk of Superior Court in the county where the other parent lives, along with a completed child support worksheet reflecting current financial circumstances and, where applicable, the updated parenting time calculation.

Georgia law generally limits modification filings to once every two years, though exceptions exist when there has been a significant change in income or financial status. After filing, the petition must be formally served on the other parent through a sheriff’s deputy or private process server. The court then schedules a hearing where both sides present financial evidence, the judge reviews the worksheets, and, if the changes justify it, a new order replaces the prior one.

One detail that catches people off guard: the new order typically applies from the date the petition was filed, not the date the judge signs it. If your income drops or you become entitled to a parenting time adjustment, waiting months to file costs you those months of potential reduction.

What the New Law Did Not Change

SB 454 sits on top of the existing framework rather than replacing it. Georgia still uses the income shares model, combining both parents’ adjusted gross incomes and splitting the obligation proportionally.¹ Gross income is still defined broadly to include wages, self-employment earnings, Social Security, workers’ compensation, unemployment, retirement income, rental income, and interest and dividends, with adjustments for the child’s health insurance, preexisting orders, and work-related childcare.

The rules on imputed income are also unchanged. If a parent fails to produce reliable evidence of income and the court has no other dependable information, O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(f)(4)(A) lets the court impute income based on the parent’s assets, work history, job skills, education, age, health, criminal record, and the local job market and prevailing wages.¹ The exception for incarcerated parents remains: the court cannot assume a person behind bars could earn pre-incarceration wages, and imputes income only based on what that parent actually has available.

Deviation categories, enforcement tools, the tax-neutral treatment of child support, and the rule that support obligations survive bankruptcy all remain in place. And interest on unpaid support still accrues at 7 percent per year, beginning 30 days after the payment was due.³ If arrears are already building, the updated guidelines are a reason to move on a modification now rather than later; the new law gives you new arguments, but it does not erase old debt.