Wisconsin Split Placement Child Support Calculator

When each parent has primary placement of at least one child, Wisconsin prorates the standard percentage per child and runs the math in both directions.^[1] Each parent owes support for the children living with the other parent, and the two amounts offset into one payment. Enter both incomes and where each child primarily lives, and the calculator shows the per-child rate, both obligations, and who pays.

Split placement flips how most people picture support, because both parents are payers on paper before the offset nets it out. The per-child rate also depends on your total number of children, not just the ones in the other home. Both details change the result, and both are easy to get backward.

Please read before you start. This is an estimate, not a court order. It applies the split-placement provisions in Wis. Admin. Code § DCF 150.04(3) to the figures you enter, which assumes each parent has primary placement of at least one child. If any child is on a shared schedule, this is the wrong tool and the combined calculation applies instead. Under Wis. Stat. § 767.511(1m) a court can order a different amount. Using this tool does not create an attorney-client relationship with Sterling Lawyers and nothing here is legal advice.

Built on the split placement guidelines in Wis. Admin. Code DCF 150.04(3) and checked against the state's official split placement worksheet and calculator.^[2]

Is this the right calculator for you?

Use it when you have two or more children, each parent has primary placement of at least one of them, and no child is in a shared schedule. If your family lands outside that shape, one of these fits better.

• One parent has primary placement of all the children. That is not split placement. Support runs on the standard percentages through the main Wisconsin child support calculator.
• Any child spends at least 92 overnights with each parent. A shared child in the mix changes the formula, and the combined shared and split placement calculator handles that structure.
• The paying parent already has an earlier support order. Prior obligations reduce the income this formula starts from, so run the serial family child support calculator first and bring the adjusted income here.
• Income is unusually high or low. Courts can combine the split guidelines with the high income tiers or the state's low income schedule. The calculator flags both situations when your inputs suggest them.

How the split placement formula works

Three moves: find the per-child rate, run each parent's obligation for the children in the other home, then offset. Here is the sequence the calculator performs.

1. Find the per-child rate. Take the standard percentage for your total number of children and divide it by that total. Two children make it 12.5 percent per child, three make it 9.67, four make it 7.75, and five make it 6.8.^[3]
2. Calculate each parent's obligation. Multiply each parent's monthly income available for child support, which Wisconsin counts as gross income from all sources,^[4] by the per-child rate times the number of children placed with the other parent.
3. Offset the two results. Subtract the smaller obligation from the larger one. The parent with the larger obligation pays the difference.

The most common mistake runs step two backward. You pay based on the children living in the other home, not the ones in yours. More children with you means you pay less, because the other parent's obligation to you grows.

Why the rate uses your total number of children

Wisconsin's percentages already scale down per child as families grow, which is why two children draw 25 percent rather than 17 plus 17. Splitting the household does not reset that scale. The state divides the total-family percentage evenly per child, so a three-child split family stays on three-child economics instead of pricing each child like an only child.

A worked example

Parent A earns $4,600 a month and has one child at home. Parent B earns $3,100 a month and has two children at home. Three children total means the 29 percent standard, and 29 divided by 3 gives a per-child rate of 9.67 percent.

• Parent A: $4,600 x 19.34%, covering the two children placed with Parent B, equals $890.
• Parent B: $3,100 x 9.67%, covering the one child placed with Parent A, equals $300.
• The offset: $890 minus $300 means Parent A pays about $590 per month.

Notice the direction. Parent A has one child at home but pays on the two who live with Parent B. The parent with fewer children at home usually ends up the payer, unless the incomes pull hard the other way.

How split placement differs from shared placement

No 150 percent multiplier applies here, and overnights never enter the math. Split placement runs on primary placement counts per child, while shared placement runs on each parent's overnight share with a multiplier for duplicated household costs. The two formulas answer different family shapes, and mixing them up is the fastest way to a wrong number.

Vocabulary matters too. People often say split custody, but Wisconsin's term is split placement, and custody itself, meaning decision-making authority, does not move this number. If any child in your case crosses into a shared schedule, with both parents over 92 overnights for that child, the combined formula takes over.

What this estimate leaves out

Your result is the guideline offset payment and nothing more. The court handles several related pieces separately.

• Medical support. Courts assign health insurance responsibility and health care costs separately from this number.
• Deviations. The split guidelines are discretionary, and either parent can ask the court to depart from them when the result would be unfair, with written findings required.^[5]
• The order itself. This is an estimate. Only a court sets, approves, or changes support, including any agreement you and the other parent reach.

How Sterling Lawyers can help

Split placement families run two households with different children and different costs, and the support number is only one piece of that picture. Whether splitting the children serves them is the bigger question, and it deserves more than a formula. Sterling Lawyers practices family law exclusively across Wisconsin, and we pressure test both the placement structure and the number before you commit to either.

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