When child support ends in Virginia (2026)
Virginia child support generally ends when the child turns 18. It continues past 18 for a child who is a full time high school student, not self supporting, and living in the home of the parent receiving support, until the child turns 19 or graduates from high school, whichever comes first (Code of Virginia § 20-124.2 C). A court can also order support for an adult child with a severe and permanent disability that began before 18, and parents can agree to extend support.
When does child support end in Virginia?
Virginia’s support statutes treat 18 as the point where support for a child stops, unless one of the extensions below applies. The extensions are in Code of Virginia § 20-124.2 C for circuit court orders and in § 16.1-278.15 A, in the same words, for juvenile and domestic relations district court orders.
| Situation | When support for that child ends |
|---|---|
| The child is 18 and none of the extensions apply | At 18 |
| Full time high school student, not self supporting, living with the parent receiving support | At 19 or high school graduation, whichever comes first |
| Severely and permanently disabled before 18, unable to live independently, living with the parent receiving support | When the court orders; the court may continue it past 18 |
| The parents agreed to a later end, and the court confirmed the agreement | As the agreement says |
Does child support continue until high school graduation in Virginia?
Under § 20-124.2 C, the court shall order that support continues for a child over 18 who is:
- a full time high school student,
- not self supporting, and
- living in the home of the parent seeking or receiving child support,
until the child reaches 19 or graduates from high school, “whichever first occurs”. So a student who turns 19 before graduating stops receiving support at 19, and a student who graduates before 19 stops at graduation.
Some websites describe the rule as “whichever comes later”. That is not Virginia’s rule. Texas uses a later of the two rule, which is one of the differences covered in Texas vs Virginia.
Do Virginia parents have to pay for college?
The Virginia support statutes cited here do not require support for college. Section 20-124.2 C allows the court to confirm a stipulation or agreement of the parents that extends support beyond when it would otherwise end, so parents can agree to pay toward college, and the court can make that agreement part of the order.
Can support continue for a disabled adult child?
Yes. Under § 20-124.2 C the court may order support to be paid, or to continue, for a child over 18 who:
- is severely and permanently mentally or physically disabled, and the disability existed before the child turned 18 (or before 19 if the child met the three high school conditions above);
- is unable to live independently and support himself or herself; and
- lives in the home of the parent seeking or receiving child support.
On request of either parent, the court may order the payments made to a special needs trust or an ABLE savings trust account.
What must a Virginia order say about when support ends?
Every Virginia support order, original or modified, must include notice of the high school and disability rules above (§ 20-60.3, item 5). Orders must also say that if arrears remain when the youngest child in the order emancipates, payments continue at the same total, current support plus the amount applied to arrears, until the arrears are paid (§ 20-60.3, item 16).
What happens to unpaid support after the child is grown?
It is still owed. Each support payment that falls due and is unpaid becomes a judgment by operation of law, and the order provides for interest on arrears at the judgment rate unless the parent owed the support waives it in writing (§ 20-60.3, item 14). How arrears are collected, and what happens when they are not paid, is in the guide to back child support in Virginia.
What happens if a parent dies?
Section 20-124.2 C says the court has no authority to order support payable by the estate of a deceased parent. A court can instead order a parent to keep an existing life insurance policy and name the children as beneficiaries for as long as that parent has a duty to pay support (§ 20-108.1 D).
What this guide does not cover
This guide does not cover emancipation of a minor by court order or marriage, how a single amount ordered for several children changes when one child’s support ends, or enforcement of arrears, which has its own guide. The amount of support while it lasts is covered in the Virginia guide and its linked guides.
The information here describes the statutes; it is not legal advice. The terms of a particular order matter.
Run your own numbers
This guide's example: in Virginia, 1 child; the parent the children live with earns $4,000 a month and the other parent $6,000, before tax; 0 days a year with the other parent. The guideline amount is $750.60 a month. Change any number in the calculator and every step of the formula updates.
Open this family in the Virginia calculatorQuestions
Does child support stop at 18 in Virginia?
Usually, unless the child is a full time high school student who is not self supporting and lives with the parent receiving support. Then it continues until 19 or graduation, whichever comes first (§ 20-124.2 C).
Does Virginia child support continue until high school graduation?
Only until the child turns 19 at the latest. If the child graduates before 19, support for that child ends at graduation; if the child turns 19 first, it ends at 19.
Do Virginia parents have to pay for college?
The support statutes do not require it. Parents can agree to extend support beyond when it would otherwise end, and a court may confirm that agreement (§ 20-124.2 C).
Can child support continue for a disabled adult child in Virginia?
Yes. A court may order support for a child over 18 who is severely and permanently mentally or physically disabled, unable to live independently and support himself or herself, and living with the parent seeking or receiving support, when the disability existed before 18 (§ 20-124.2 C).
What happens to unpaid child support when the child turns 18?
It is still owed. Unpaid support becomes a judgment as it falls due, and if arrears remain when the youngest child emancipates, payments continue at the same total until the arrears are paid (§ 20-60.3, items 14 and 16).
Sources
- Code of Virginia § 20-124.2, Court-ordered custody and visitation arrangements (subsection C)
- Code of Virginia § 16.1-278.15, Custody or visitation, child or spousal support generally
- Code of Virginia § 20-60.3, Contents of support orders
- Code of Virginia § 20-108.1, Determination of child or spousal support (subsection D, life insurance)
- Figures on this page are computed by the Coparent Math engine with Virginia's rules in force on 2 Nov 2026 unless a table says otherwise, from:
- Code of Virginia § 20-108.2, checked 2 Nov 2026
- 2025 Acts of Assembly, Chapter 702 (SB 805), chaptered text, checked 2 Nov 2026
- Child Support Guidelines Review Panel, Review of Virginia's Child Support Guidelines (RD397, December 2013): Key Changes (1) and Appendix C, checked 2 Nov 2026
Related guides
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Related
- How a Virginia child support order is changed (2026)A Virginia child support order changes only when a court revises it, either on a parent's petition or after a review by the Division of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE), and the court needs a material change in circumstances. A change can reach back only to the date the other parent was given notice of the petition (Code of Virginia § 20-108). In DCSE reviews, a material change is deemed to exist when the guideline amount differs from the current order by at least 10 percent and at least 25 dollars a month (§ 63.2-1921 C).
- Back child support (arrears) in Virginia: interest, enforcement and jail (2026)In Virginia, each child support payment that is not paid when due becomes a judgment by operation of law, and the arrears carry interest at the judgment rate of six percent a year unless the parent owed support waives it in writing (Code of Virginia §§ 20-60.3, 20-78.2, 6.2-302). Arrears are collected through income withholding, liens, tax refund offsets, credit reporting and license suspension, and a court can jail a parent for up to 12 months for contempt (§ 16.1-278.16). Arrears cannot be reduced retroactively, and they stay owed after the child turns 18 or 19.
In the same hub
- Virginia child support by income (2026)Virginia child support depends on both parents' gross incomes and the number of children. When the other parent earns $5,000 a month ($60,000 a year) and the parent the children live with earns $4,000, the guideline is $664.44 a month for one child and $977.78 for two, before health insurance, child care or shared custody. The tables below give the amount at other incomes.
- Child support for more than one child in Virginia (2026)Virginia's schedule has a column for each number of children from one to six, and each extra child adds less than the one before. For the same family, two children cost more than one but not twice as much: with incomes of $4,000 and $6,000 a month, the guideline is $750.60 for one child and $1,094.40 for two. Children from other relationships are handled by deductions from income, and split custody has its own formula.
- Child support above the Virginia schedule (2026)Virginia's schedule stops at $42,500 of combined monthly gross income, but support does not. Above that, the schedule amount at $42,500 is increased by a fixed percentage of the combined income above it: 2.6% for one child, 3.4% for two and 3.8% for three. The total is then split by income share like any other Virginia case.
- Health insurance, medical bills and child care in Virginia child support (2026)Virginia adds the cost of the children's health, dental and vision coverage, and child care needed because the parent the children live with works, to the basic obligation from the schedule. The total is split by income share, and a parent who pays the premium directly gets credit for it. Reasonable and necessary medical and dental bills that insurance does not cover are also shared in proportion to income, but outside the monthly amount (Code of Virginia § 20-108.2 D, E, F, G).
- Self-employment and imputed income in Virginia child support (2026)For a self-employed parent, Virginia counts gross receipts minus reasonable business expenses, and deducts half of any self-employment tax paid; the parent claiming the expenses has to prove them (Code of Virginia § 20-108.2 C). When a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, a court can base support on the income that parent could earn, within limits set by § 20-108.1 B 3.
- Child support at low incomes in Virginia (2026)At low incomes Virginia uses the bottom rows of its schedule, and when the sole custody amount would fall below what § 20-108.2 B calls the statutory minimum, that minimum is presumed instead. The subsection does not state a dollar figure; the words stand for the schedule's lowest amount for the number of children, $68 a month for one child. A court can set a lower amount when the paying parent's gross income is at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level and there is no ability to pay, and some parents are exempt from the minimum altogether.
The same topic in other states
- How long child support lasts in New York (2026)In New York, parents must support a child until the child turns 21, not 18 (Family Court Act § 413(1)(a)). Support can end earlier if the child is emancipated, for example by marrying, joining the military, or being 18 or older and working full time. For an adult with a developmental disability who lives with and depends on a parent, support can be ordered until 26.
- How long child support lasts in Texas (2026)Texas child support usually lasts until the child turns 18 or graduates from high school, whichever is later (Texas Family Code § 154.001). Support past 18 requires the child to be enrolled in high school and meeting attendance requirements (§ 154.002). It ends earlier if the child marries, is emancipated by court order, dies or starts active military service, and it can continue indefinitely for a child with a disability (§§ 154.006 and 154.302).
Comparisons
- New York vs Virginia child support: which state is higher? (2026)For most middle income families New York's guideline is higher. For two children with incomes of $4,000 and $6,000 a month it is $1,385.25 in New York and $1,094.40 in Virginia, and New York support runs to 21 rather than 18. Virginia can come out lower still with shared custody, which its formula uses and New York's does not, while at very high incomes Virginia, which has no cap, can be higher.
- Texas vs Virginia child support: which state is higher? (2026)It depends mostly on two things: the income of the parent the children live with, and custody time. Texas looks only at the paying parent's net income, so for two children and a paying parent earning $6,000 a month it is $1,239.21 whatever the other parent earns. Virginia uses both incomes and is $1,094.40 when the other parent earns $4,000, and $258.86 with 182 days a year of shared time. When the parent the children live with has no income, or at very high incomes, Virginia can be higher.
More about Virginia
- Child support and your tax refund: the offset rules (2026)Yes. Under 42 U.S.C. § 664, the Treasury withholds a federal tax refund to pay past-due child support that a state child support agency has certified, and sends the money to that state. A case qualifies when at least $150 is owed on support assigned to the state for public assistance, or at least $500 in other cases (45 CFR 303.72). The state must send a notice first that explains how to contest the amount, and a spouse on a joint return can claim their share back with IRS Form 8379.
- Child support when parents live in different statesWhen parents live in different states, the court that sets support applies its own state's law and guideline (Texas Family Code § 159.303). A state can make an order against a parent who lives elsewhere only on one of the jurisdiction bases in the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (§ 159.201); otherwise the case is heard in the other parent's state, with the two states' child support agencies working together. An order from another state is registered to be enforced, and in Texas the other party has 30 days after notice to contest it (§ 159.605).
- Does 50/50 custody mean no child support? Texas, New York and Virginia (2026)No. In Texas, New York and Virginia, equal time with each parent does not by itself end child support. Only Virginia's guideline uses the number of days: above 90 days a year with each parent, a shared custody formula lowers support, and with equal time the parent who earns more usually pays the difference. Texas and New York apply their usual formula; in Texas, parenting time is a factor a court may weigh to depart from it, and New York's statute has no shared custody formula, but with truly equal time its appellate courts make the parent with the larger income share the paying parent.
- How child support is calculatedEvery state sets a guideline formula in law, and courts apply it unless they find it unjust or inappropriate. The formula takes the parents' income (gross or net, one parent's or both), turns it into a base amount with a percentage or a schedule, adds some costs such as child care and health insurance, and in some states adjusts for parenting time and very low or high incomes. Texas, New York and Virginia each do these steps differently, so the same family gets a different figure in each.
- Income shares vs percentage of income: how child support models differ (2026)A percentage of income model sets support as a fixed share of the paying parent's income, and the other parent's income does not enter the formula. An income shares model starts from both parents' combined income, finds the basic support amount the guideline sets for that income, and splits it in proportion to each parent's income. Texas uses a percentage of the paying parent's net resources, Virginia uses income shares, and New York applies a fixed percentage to both parents' combined income and splits it by income.
- Child support and taxes: what the IRS says (2026)Child support is neither taxable nor deductible under federal tax law: the IRS says child support payments are not deductible by the parent who pays them and not taxable to the parent who receives them. Who claims the child is a separate question. The IRS treats the parent the child lived with for more nights in the year as the one entitled to claim the child; that parent can release the child tax credit to the other parent with Form 8332, but head of household status, the earned income credit and the child care credit stay with the parent the child lived with.