Opinion ID: 852430
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Do Evening Visits Count Toward the Parenting Time Credit?

Text: Indiana Child Support Guideline 3(G)(4) provides that trial courts may grant the noncustodial parent a credit toward his or her weekly child support obligation. . . based upon the calculation from a Parenting Time Credit Worksheet. In calculating Timothy's child support obligation, the trial court awarded Timothy parenting time credit for 104 overnights, 52 of which were for actual overnight stays and 52 of which were for the two additional evenings per week Timothy spends with the children from 3 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. Marla argues that the Guidelines do not permit parenting time credit for non-over-night visits. (Appellant's Br. at 34.) Timothy argues that the trial court correctly awarded him this parenting time credit because during the Tuesday and Thursday evening visits he performs overnight duties, such as providing the children with transportation from school and to and from their activities, feeding them, doing homework with them, and returning them home for bed. (Appellee's Br. at 10.) The Child Support Guidelines contain a formula for calculating parenting time credit based upon the total number of overnights per year that the noncustodial parent spends with the children. Child Supp. G. 6 Table PT. In explaining the term overnight, the commentary to the guidelines provides that [a]n overnight will not always translate into a twenty-four hour block of time with all of the attendant costs and responsibilities. It should include, however, the costs of feeding and transporting the child, attending to school work and the like. Merely providing a child with a place to sleep in order to obtain a credit is prohibited. Child Supp. G. 6 cmt. We take the gist of this comment to be that not all visits in which a child stays overnight may qualify for the parenting time credit. Still, neither this comment nor any other portion of the guidelines suggests that a visit may qualify as an overnight if the child does not physically stay overnight with the noncustodial parent. If the able and careful drafters of the guidelines had intended for non-overnight visits in which the noncustodial parent provides the children with transportation from school and to and from their activities, feeds them, and does homework with them to qualify for parenting time credit, the guidelines could have easily included those visits in the formula. The rationale behind the parenting time credit is that overnight visits with the noncustodial parent may alter some of the financial burden of the custodial and noncustodial parents in caring for the children. Because calculating the amount of financial burden alleviated by an overnight visit is difficult, the guidelines provide a standardized parenting time credit formula. Credit is not provided for evening visits because watching the children during study hours typically does little to displace the relative parental burdens. Accordingly, the number of visits a noncustodial parent receives parenting time credit for cannot exceed the number of visits in which the children physically stay overnight with the parent. On the other hand, if after calculating the noncustodial parent's child support obligation the court concludes that in a particular case application of the guideline amount would be unreasonable, unjust, or inappropriate, the court may deviate from that amount by entering a written finding articulating the factual circumstances supporting that conclusion. Ind. Child Support Rule 3. Noncustodial parents may be entitled to a deviation for non-overnight visits if the facts and circumstances of the case warrant it. Such facts might include, for example, the need to leave work early every day in order to pick the children up from school.