i was a child support officer for state of mn and you should contact your state's child support office to find out who would have jurisdiction. beleive me, they know child support laws better than most attorneys! in mn child support can be set through the divorce decree which is usually lower than what the county will set it at because both parties generally agree on a number. also in mn, if you let the county set it it's cheaper because you dont get billed from your attorney for that part of it especially if you are on any kind of government aid. the county will literally go after him since he is the absent parent and you are relying on the state's money. and the county may be able to go back to the date of seperation or birth of child. attorneys can only go from the date of the divorce. you want to look at things like child care--do you need help with that now or in the future? what if you dont need it know but change jobs and will need in the future? a good idea for this type of thing is to get those issues "reserved" in an order. what that means is that it can be looked at in the future without you having to waste a bunch of money on attorney's fees. it's not being addressed presently but can be in the future. Look at your situation and decide if you you need help with medical, dental,child care and general support. you may also even be able to add it in your decree that child support will continue until child is 18 or 21 if continuing education. just because that is the guideline for that state doesnt mean that it cant be put in a decree. what gets set in a decree is hard to change so you want to cover all your bases up front mostly for the childs financial sake and for you emotionally. another financial aspect that you want to try to cover is think into the future. i dont know how many kids or what ages but what if one of them wants to play a sport? you can have it added in the decree that he will have to pay for 1/2 of school related fees and other activity fees. this way down the road he cant give you the excuse that "he pays CS so use that." we all know that it is insanely expensive to get kids into things but having this verbage in the decree can drastically reduce hassle with the x. think about who will claim who for tax returns. a good way to keep a ncp up on paying child support is to put verbage in the decree that states, "NCP will be able to claim child on taxes every odd year so long as child support is current by dec 31st of that year and uninsureds are current as well. failure to be current will result in loss of claiming dependent on taxes." also you may want to think about how holidays birthdays, mothers day, fathers day, special days and other family events like weddings, funerals, etc will be divided. make sure you have CLEAR verbage about this as these times are more emotional and meaningful for both parties. (i.e. "Dad will have kids for Christmas Day from 9am to 9pm every odd year starting in 2009.")or tailor it to whatever your situation is. make it clear for the pick up and drop off location if possible.if he is in the military, get verbage that he will be responsible for the cost of transporting the children for visits, etc. that way when they are 16 and want to see dad in japan or wherever and dad tells them to ask their mom why she cant book a flight since he pays child support you can tell them that dad is ordered by the judge to pay for transportation costs to see him when he is overseas or over 200 miles or whatever. i've looked at thousands of divorce decrees and arguments always come from verbage that isnt spelled out for both parties or not addressed at all. get it set from the start so you arent paying attorney fees when you want to try to get something changed in your decree in the future. most of all shoot for the moon because you will have to meet in the middle somewhere with attorneys and starting in the middle may make you regret it.