How it works · official guideline
How child support is calculated in Massachusetts
Massachusetts courts must apply the Child Support Guidelines issued by the Chief Justice of the Trial Court, and the guideline amount is presumed appropriate unless the court makes specific written findings that it would be unjust or inappropriate and that departing serves the child’s best interests. The guidelines themselves could not be read for this page.[1]
Massachusetts’s model
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Read the guideline: M.G.L. c. 208, § 28The state child support agency or your court clerk can run the official numbers.
Why no calculator here? We publish a calculator only after it reproduces the state’s official numbers exactly. We haven’t matched Massachusetts’s yet.
From the official text
The rules behind Massachusetts’s numbers
The guideline is M.G.L. c. 208, § 28. Open each rule to read the exact words.
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Orders modified when inconsistent with the guidelines
After a divorce, support orders are to be modified when the existing amount is inconsistent with the guideline amount, unless the difference comes from an earlier justified departure and circumstances have not changed.[1]
Official text · M.G.L. c. 208, § 28
“orders of maintenance and for support of minor children shall be modified if there is an inconsistency between the amount of the existing order and the amount that would result from application of the child support guidelines promulgated by the chief justice of the trial court or if there is a need to provide for the health care coverage of the child.”
Guideline: M.G.L. c. 208, § 28 (Massachusetts General Court), checked October 26, 2026.
Estimate and general information only — not legal advice. MediationList is a directory, not a law firm, and doesn’t endorse any mediator. Guidelines change; confirm with the state child support agency or your court (sources checked October 26, 2026). See also divorce laws in Massachusetts and child support in every state.
Sources
Massachusetts’s child support guideline, rules and official tools, read on the official sites, with the date we checked each.