OPINION: Report shows Missouri's child support guidelines are lacking

National Parents Organization once again has stepped up to the plate by using its time, talent and treasure to research and then publish the results of a groundbreaking study.

The 2022 Child Support and Shared Parenting Report Card documents the ways that many states' child support guidelines create significant barriers to equal shared parenting, which research has consistently shown to be in the best interest of children of separated parents. These barriers also pit parents against one another in ways that are destructive of their capacity to co-parent their children and are harmful to children.

When we hear the term "child support," we think mainly of monetary support, and financial support is important. But of course, child support is more than money. Children need emotional, spiritual and intellectual support from both parents. Also, it seems as if high child support orders are never bad for children, even if they might be bad for the parent paying child support. But when the children have two homes, one with each of their parents, excessive child support orders will leave the children inadequately supported in one of their homes.

The results of this study clearly show that most states have much work to be done in order to encourage co-parenting and lessen the conflict. Five states have guidelines that can result in one parent presumptively owing child support even when the parents have equal incomes and are sharing the parenting time equally. Missouri is one of these states. There can be special reasons why there should be child support in such cases (one parent is paying all of the health insurance costs or for private school, etc.). But the guideline amount for the basic child support obligation should be '0' in such cases.

Overall, Missouri received a grade of D+. Missouri actually didn't have any positives in this report! The negatives include the fact that Missouri's PTA (parenting time adjustment) threshold of 36 days creates a significant cliff effect.

These cliff effects make huge differences in child support obligations that turn on insignificant differences in parenting time. Not only do such cliff effects make no economic sense, they encourage parents, sometimes on the advice of their attorneys, to fight over minor differences in parenting schedules.

Missouri also overestimates the fixed, duplicated costs involved in shared parenting, such as housing and utilities. This results in a "shared parenting penalty" that creates a barrier to the parenting arrangement that's usually best for children.

Also Missouri takes into account the recipient's income when deciding on a child support order without weighing the effect on the payer's household. This might seem child-friendly in a case where the recipient is the sole custodian, but it is harmful to children when both parents are providing homes for the children.

This report is technical but very important. Please take a look and share this report. You can find it at sharedparenting.org.

We in Missouri must change our state's child support guidelines so that they ensure children are appropriately supported in both of their homes and that they facilitate, rather than deter, shared parenting and the cooperative relation between parents that is so vital to our children's well-being. Our children deserve that.

Linda Reutzel, of Cape Girardeau, is chair of the Missouri chapter of the National Parents Organization and a national board member.