Child support for more than one child in Texas (2026)

How much is child support for 2, 3 or more children in Texas?

For children who all live in one household, Texas Family Code § 154.125 sets one percentage of the paying parent’s net resources for each number of children. The same income across family sizes:

Monthly gross wages of the paying parent, all children in one household.

Other parent's income a month	1 child	2 children	3 children	4 children	5 children	6 children
$3,000	$518.43	$648.04	$777.65	$907.26	$1,036.87	$1,036.87
$6,000	$991.37	$1,239.21	$1,487.05	$1,734.89	$1,982.73	$1,982.73
$10,000	$1,554.17	$1,942.71	$2,331.25	$2,719.79	$3,108.33	$3,108.33

The percentages, and the lower ones that apply when net resources are under $1,000 a month:

Children	Standard table	Low-income table
1	20%	15%
2	25%	20%
3	30%	25%
4	35%	30%
5	40%	35%
6 or more	not less than the amount for 5 children	not less than the amount for 5 children

Does support go down when one child turns 18 or graduates?

Yes, in the way the order says. Section 154.127 requires every order for more than one child to provide that, when support ends for one child, support for the remaining children follows the guidelines. The order complies if it lists the events that end support for each child and the reduced monthly total after each one.

For the same paying parent on wages of $6,000 a month, the steps down look like this:

Children still covered	Guideline a month
3	$1,487.05
2	$1,239.21
1	$991.37

The amounts in an actual order are fixed when the order is made, so they use the income at that time, not at the date of each step.

How is Texas child support calculated for children with different parents in more than one household?

When the paying parent has a legal duty to support children who are not before the court, § 154.128 tells the court to compute support this way:

1. Work out the support for all the children the parent must support as if they lived in one household.
2. Divide that by the total number of children and multiply by the number of children not before the court. This is the child support credit.
3. Subtract the credit from the parent’s net resources.
4. Apply the one household percentage for the children before the court to what is left.

The children counted include those living with the paying parent and any others that parent has a duty to support, whether or not there is an order for them and whether or not payments are up to date (§ 154.128(b) and (c)). Child support the paying parent receives for other children is added to that parent’s net resources before this computation (§ 154.070).

For example, with two children before the court and one other child, the credit is a third of the three child amount, and the two child rate is then applied to the rest. That works out to 22.5 percent of net resources.

What is the Texas multiple family table?

Instead of the credit computation, the court may apply the percentages in § 154.129 directly to net resources. An extract of the table for net resources from $1,000 a month up to the cap, in percent of net resources:

Other children the parent must support	1 child before the court	2 children	3 children	4 children
0	20.00	25.00	30.00	35.00
1	17.50	22.50	27.38	32.20
2	16.00	20.63	25.20	30.33
3	14.75	19.00	24.00	29.00
4	13.60	18.33	23.14	28.00

The full table in § 154.129(a) runs to 7 children before the court and 7 other children, and § 154.129(b) has a lower table for net resources under the low-income line. In a modification, the court applies the multiple family guidelines too (§ 156.406).

Does a new partner’s income or family count?

A spouse’s income never counts: the court may not add any portion of a spouse’s net resources to either parent’s, and may not subtract the needs of a spouse or a spouse’s dependents (§ 154.069, and § 156.404 for modifications). Children the paying parent has a legal duty to support, including new children of that parent, are counted in the multiple household computation above.

Open this family in the Texas calculator

What this guide does not cover

The calculator computes one household only; it does not apply the § 154.128 credit or the § 154.129 table, so figures for families with children in more than one household are not shown here. The engine also leaves out these parts of the Texas guideline:

• For children in one household. Children in more than one household are computed with a credit for the other children (154.128), or with the alternative table in 154.129; not modeled.
• Dental support (up to 1.5% of the paying parent's resources, 154.1825), cash medical support when no health insurance is available (154.182(b)(3)) and uninsured medical costs (154.183(c)) are ordered on top of this, not modeled.
• Self-employment income is not modeled. The engine deducts an employee's Social Security and Medicare; for self-employment income the Attorney General's self-employed chart deducts self-employment tax instead, which gives lower net resources.
• Net resources here only count wages. Other income and some deductions (154.062) are not modeled.

The figures are estimates of the guideline amount. A court can order a different amount, and an existing order only changes when it is modified.