Allocating School Time In Timeshare Calculation

Child support, while based on several inputs into the computer program that calculates child support, is largely influenced by the two main factors; the timeshare each party has with the children and the amount of income of the parties.

Generally, one party or the other will have weekend visitation. This generally makes for an easy calculation of the timeshare percentage associated to the custodial and non-custodial parent. However, on occasion when the visitation is during the week, and especially if the child is in school, who is allocated the school time since neither parent has the physical custody of the child? The case of DaSilva vs. DaSilva took a look at this very issue. At issue was who should be credited with the time the child was in school. The dispute arose because the mom had primary custody of the child. However, during school time the parties shared the transportation of getting the child to and from school thus father felt that he should be allocated some school time.

The Court of Appeal found that the child support calculation formula is intended to be an approximation of the time the parents have the “primary responsibility” for the child which may or may not be the same as “primary custody”. The court went on to state that the timeshare percentage is the approximate percentage of time that the high earner has or will have primary physical responsibility of the child as compared to the other parent. Thus, the court indicated that the school time can be given to a parent that may not have the physical custody but they have the physical responsibility during that time.

Such factors may include :

(1) who pays for transportation or who transports the child;
(2) who is designated to respond to medical or other emergencies;
(3) who was responsible for paying tuition (if any) or incidental school expenses; and
(4) who participates in school activities, fundraisers, or other school-related functions. Thus, while in some cases the time share allocation can be straightforward in other cases time share calculation can be more problematic.