---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 667"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "667"
heading: "State guidelines for child support awards"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/667"
units:
  - "Chapter 7 — Social Security"
  - "Subchapter IV — Grants to States for Aid and Services to Needy Families with Children and for Child-Welfare Services"
  - "Part D — Child Support and Establishment of Paternity"
---

# §667. State guidelines for child support awards

- (a) **Establishment of guidelines; method—** Each [State](/usc/42/619.md?p=5), as a condition for having its [State](/usc/42/619.md?p=5) plan approved under this part, must establish guidelines for [child](/usc/42/1382c.md?p=c) support award amounts within the [State](/usc/42/619.md?p=5). The guidelines may be established by law or by judicial or administrative action, and shall be reviewed at least once every 4 years to ensure that their application results in the determination of appropriate [child](/usc/42/1382c.md?p=c) support award amounts.
- (b) **Availability of guidelines; rebuttable presumption—**
  - (1) The guidelines established pursuant to [subsection (a)](#a) shall be made available to all judges and other officials who have the power to determine [child](/usc/42/1382c.md?p=c) support awards within such [State](/usc/42/619.md?p=5).
  - (2) There shall be a rebuttable presumption, in any judicial or administrative proceeding for the award of [child](/usc/42/1382c.md?p=c) support, that the amount of the award which would result from the application of such guidelines is the correct amount of [child](/usc/42/1382c.md?p=c) support to be awarded. A written finding or specific finding on the record that the application of the guidelines would be unjust or inappropriate in a particular case, as determined under criteria established by the [State](/usc/42/619.md?p=5), shall be sufficient to rebut the presumption in that case.
- (c) **Technical assistance to States; State to furnish Secretary with copies—** The [Secretary](/usc/42/1301.md?p=a-6) shall furnish technical assistance to the [States](/usc/42/619.md?p=5) for establishing the guidelines, and each [State](/usc/42/619.md?p=5) shall furnish the [Secretary](/usc/42/1301.md?p=a-6) with copies of its guidelines.

## Source credit

(Aug. 14, 1935, ch. 531, title IV, § 467, as added Pub. L. 98–378, § 18(a), Aug. 16, 1984, 98 Stat. 1321; amended Pub. L. 100–485, title I, § 103(a), (b), Oct. 13, 1988, 102 Stat. 2346.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1988—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 100–485, § 103(b), inserted “, and shall be reviewed at least once every 4 years to ensure that their application results in the determination of appropriate child support award amounts” before period at end.

Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 100–485, § 103(a), designated existing provisions as par. (1), struck out “, but need not be binding upon such judges or other officials” after “within such State”, and added par. (2).

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date of 1988 Amendment

Amendment by Pub. L. 100–485 effective one year after Oct. 13, 1988, see section 103(f) of Pub. L. 100–485, set out as a note under section 666 of this title.

### Effective Date

Pub. L. 98–378, § 18(b), Aug. 16, 1984, 98 Stat. 1322, provided that: “The amendment made by subsection (a) [enacting this section] shall become effective on October 1, 1987.”

### Study of Child-Rearing Costs

Pub. L. 100–485, title I, § 128, Oct. 13, 1988, 102 Stat. 2356, directed Secretary of Health and Human Services, by grant or contract, to conduct a study of patterns of expenditures on children in 2-parent families, in single-parent families following divorce or separation, and in single-parent families in which parents were never married, giving particular attention to the relative standards of living in households in which both parents and all of the children do not live together, and submit to Congress no later than 2 years after Oct. 13, 1988, a full and complete report of results of such study, including recommendations for legislative, administrative, and other actions.