The daycare invoice arrives. Then the travel baseball fee, then a bill from the orthodontist for what insurance did not cover. You are already paying child support every month, and now you are being asked for more. Or, perhaps you are on the other side of it. You cover all of this yourself and wonder whether you are supposed to be carrying it alone.
One of the common questions we hear from clients is: “Can I be ordered to pay for child-related expenses in addition to my child support obligation?”
The simple answer is: Yes, but it depends on a few considerations. Illinois courts can order a parent to contribute to five specific kinds of expenses beyond the basic support amount. How those costs get divided usually depends on each party’s income rather than just a simple equal split. The basic obligation itself, and how child support is calculated in Illinois, is a separate question we cover elsewhere. This article is about everything else that child support does not cover.
Understanding the purpose of child support and what it should be used for is the key.
Key Takeaways
- Yes, a court can order you to pay child-related expenses beyond your monthly child support.
- There are five basic categories: child care, school and activities, health insurance premiums, medical costs insurance does not cover, and religious expenses.
- Illinois does not automatically split these down the middle. The court divides them pro rata, or by each parent’s individual share of the parties’ total combined income.
- Orders can come out 50/50, but they can also be 70/30 or 60/40, and sometimes one parent carries all of the additional expenses.
- The wording of your order decides whether you can be billed for something you never agreed to.
- These orders can be changed later if circumstances change substantially.
Here is what falls into each category, and where the arguments usually start:
| The expense | Can a court order you to contribute? | How it is usually divided | What parents actually fight about |
| Child care and daycare | Yes | By each parent’s share of the combined income | Whether the cost was necessary for the other parent to work |
| School and extracurricular activities | Yes, at the court’s discretion | By income share in most orders, though the court has latitude | Whether you agreed to the activity before the child was enrolled |
| Health insurance for the child | Yes | By income share, added to the basic support amount | Whether adding the child actually raised the premium |
| Medical costs insurance does not cover | Yes | By income share | How quickly receipts have to be turned over, and what counts |
| Religious activity expenses | Yes | By income share | Whether you agreed to this religious activity expense before the child was signed up and participated |
What Child Support Is Actually Meant to Cover
When you think of child support, think of the child’s basic necessities. The intent of child support is to cover the cost and expenses associated with the needs of your child on a daily basis. So what does a child “need”? A child needs to eat, needs a place to sleep, needs clothes and shoes, needs to have water, heat, and electricity in their home, etc.
Then remember that both parents have a duty to financially support their child. In Illinois, parents are legally responsible for their child’s reasonable and necessary physical, mental, and emotional health needs. This even includes basic ordinary out-of-pocket medical expenses.
Many times, people are upset because they believe that their child support payments are not being used to support the child. But you have to remember this: if the parent receiving the child support is meeting the child’s needs, then there is not an issue. As the parent paying the child support, you have little control, if any, regarding the spending habits of the other parent as long as the child’s basic needs are being met. Public policy does not allow for any accounting of what the parent who is receiving the child support spends the funds on every month.
Child Care and Daycare Expenses
Think about a young child who is not old enough to be in school yet. If both parents are working, who is watching the child? Some families have a grandparent or a friend who can. Most do not, and daycare is expensive.
The term “child care expenses” includes the following:
- Fees for daycare
- Fees for after-school and before-school care
- Fees for camps when school is not in session
- Deposits for securing placement in a child care program
A parent may ask the court to enter an order requiring the other parent to contribute to child care expenses, on top of the basic child support obligation. The court, in its discretion, can order either or both parents owing a duty of support to contribute to reasonable child care expenses.
Reasonable child care expenses are those expenses that are reasonably necessary to enable a parent to work. More precisely, they are the costs that let a parent:
- be employed,
- attend educational or vocational training programs to improve their employment, or
- search for employment.
That word reasonable is where most of the argument happens. A daycare you need to be able to hold your job is reasonable. With a nanny chosen over an available daycare, at three times the cost, it can be more difficult to get a court to order the other parent to contribute. When the court decides to enter an order requiring one or both parents to contribute to child care expenses, the court will prorate the reasonable expenses in proportion to each parent’s percentage share of their combined net income.
Because the split follows income, what actually counts as income matters as much as the amount of the bill. Two parents can have similar-looking incomes on paper and end up with very different percentages.
School and Extracurricular Activity Expenses
Children of all ages participate in what we refer to as “extracurricular” activities. A young child may be in tumbling. An older child may be on a travel baseball team. Maybe a child takes piano lessons. I am sure you can think of an example that fits your life.
Once a child starts school, they will likely have expenses related to their education. This is when we think of registration fees, book fees, lunch fees, and the list goes on and on.
The court can order a parent to contribute towards the reasonable school and extracurricular activity expenses incurred for a child. That applies when those expenses are intended to enhance the educational, athletic, social, or cultural development of the child. That standard is broader than people expect. Piano lessons and a travel team both fit the standard comfortably, which is why the fight here is almost never about whether the activity qualifies.
The fight is about consent, and about who signed the child up. The order can solve that in advance. The section further down on wording is worth reading before you agree to anything.
College is a separate matter with its own rules. If your child is close to graduating from high school, contribution to college expenses in Illinois works differently from everything described here.
Health Insurance and Medical Costs Insurance Does Not Cover
These are two different things, and the article most parents read only covers one of them.
The first is the cost of the premium for the child’s health insurance. Illinois treats that amount as part of the support calculation. The court adds it to the basic obligation, then divides it by each parent’s share of income, so the parent carrying the policy is not simply absorbing the full cost.
One practical point that surprises people: adding a child to an existing family insurance plan often does not change the premium at all. If the number on your paystub is the same with the child on it as without, that is worth raising, because the calculation is built on what the coverage actually costs.
And of course, unfortunately, there is always the possibility of a child having uncovered medical expenses. Not everyone’s insurance covers everything; who pays for that? The court can order a parent to pay for unreimbursed medical, dental, orthodontic, or vision expenses and any prescription medication for the child not covered under the child’s health insurance.
How the Court Decides Who Pays What
Many people believe Illinois splits these expenses down the middle. It does not. Under 750 ILCS 5/505, these costs are divided in proportion to each parent’s share of the combined net income. Fifty-fifty is a common outcome, but not a rule.
To start, the court will look at the income of both parents. In Illinois, we see a lot of orders with 50/50 contributions to the above-mentioned expenses; however, we also see many orders splitting expenses 70/30, 60/40, 55/45, etc. There are even cases where a parent is ordered to be responsible for 100% of the expenses.
That range is the honest answer to the question people arrive here asking. If you earn a quarter of what the two of you make together, expect something closer to 25/75.
Orders for child care expenses, as well as child support, can be modified upon a showing of a substantial change in circumstances. A job loss, a raise, or a change in the schedule can support a change to the support order. The split moves with it.
The Wording of Your Order Matters as Much as the Law
Two orders can rely on the same statute and have completely different results. One says you contribute to extracurricular expenses. The other says you contribute to activities that both parents agreed to in advance. Under the first, you can be billed for a travel team you heard about after the deposit was paid.
Three clauses are worth asking for before you agree to anything:
- Consent before an activity counts, with neither parent allowed to withhold agreement unreasonably
- Approval of the school before enrollment, where the parenting judgment gives you joint decision-making
- A deadline for submitting receipts, and a second one for paying them, so nobody hands over eight months of invoices at once
Whether you hold joint decision-making authority is set by the parenting judgment itself. Read the two documents together, not one at a time.
Getting those clauses right is its own issue, and the language we put into child support agreements is worth reading before you sign one.
What If the Other Parent Will Not Pay Their Share?
An order that divides an expense is an order, the same as the one setting monthly support. If the other parent ignores it, you can bring the issue back to the judge and ask for a finding of contempt against the parent who is not paying.
What decides those cases is paperwork. Keep the invoice, proof that you paid it, and the message showing when you sent it over to the other parent asking for reimbursement for their allocated percentage of the expense. A parent who is prepared with dates and receipts can expect a better outcome in their case than one who arrives with a story.
Unpaid contributions can also build up the same way monthly support does. Once that happens you are dealing with child support arrears, and the court has its own tools for collecting those.
Child Support Orders and Additional Expenses: Every Case Is Different
If you are wondering whether you or your ex can be ordered to contribute to additional expenses for your child, they can, but it depends upon your child’s unique situation. Every case has a different set of facts. Just because you hear that your friend’s cousin’s case ended a certain way does not mean that you will have the same outcome in your case. That can be true even when the facts look similar. In the end, the court does what it believes is in the best interest of the child.
If a bill has already been received and you are not sure you owe part of it, that is one conversation. If you are still negotiating, getting the wording right now beats fixing it in two years. If you have questions about child support or another family law issue, contact Anderson Boback & Marshall to schedule a confidential consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions About Additional Child Support Expenses in Illinois
Does child support already include daycare?
No. The basic support amount covers the child’s ordinary needs, and daycare is treated separately. Either parent can ask the court to order a contribution toward it, divided by income share. If your order says nothing about child care, that does not mean it is covered. It means nobody has asked yet.
Can I be ordered to pay for an activity I never agreed to?
It depends entirely on what your order says. If it requires both parents to agree before an activity counts, then no, and that is why the clause matters. If it simply says you contribute to extracurricular expenses, you may owe for an enrollment you learned about afterward. This is the single most common regret we hear about support agreements.
What counts as an uncovered medical expense?
Anything the child’s insurance does not pay: co-pays, deductibles, dental work, orthodontics, vision, and prescriptions. Braces are the one that surprises people, because the amount is large and it can arrive all at once. Elective procedures are a different conversation and are worth raising with your attorney before scheduling.
How long does the other parent have to give me receipts?
Only as long as your order says. Many orders are silent on it. That is how a parent ends up with a year of invoices at once. If yours does not set one, ask the next time the order is in front of the court. Fourteen days from the date of receipt by the other parent of an invoice or bill for an expense is a common and workable term.
Does the percentage change if one of us starts earning more?
Not automatically. The split in your order stays in place until somebody asks the court to change it. That request has to show a substantial change in circumstances. A meaningful raise, a job loss, or a real change in the parenting schedule can qualify. Waiting does not help you, because the change usually starts from the date you filed.
We agreed to something different than what the order says. Does that hold up?
Be careful here. Informal arrangements fall apart at the worst moment, and a judge enforces the written order. If the two of you have settled on a different split, put it in an agreed order.
