Emergency Rule on Income Share Child Support Guidelines

The Tennessee Department of Health and Human Services has found that the Income Shares Child Support Guidelines pose "an immediate danger to the public welfare." Actually, the problem is the imminent expiration of certain limitations on a petitioner's ability to modify a child support order under the guidelines.

Under current rules, a petition to modify a child support order under the Income Shares Guidelines is limited. A petitioner must meet one of four criteria. These limits were set to expire on December 31, 2005.

The Department concluded that removing the limitations could (1) pose a hardship for parents whose support payments or obligations changed significantly, and (2) cause a drastic increase in the number of modification petitions. So the Department has passed an emergency rule that keeps the current limitations in place.

I can understand the concern about a flood of petitions, but if the new Income Shares Guidelines are fair, then a change in child support obligations caused by implementation of the guidelines should not cause undue hardship to parents.

For a copy of the emergency rule, Click Here.
To review Rule 1240-2-4.05, Click Here.