Divorcing parents can choose from three ways to calculate nights for Florida child support payments, because nights play a very important factor in calculating child support.

3 ways to count the nights

All three ways of counting overnight stays for Florida support totals have strengths and weaknesses. Some methods are faster, while others are more accurate.

These are the three ways to count overnight stays:

1. Estimate–Parents can estimate the number of nights the non-custodial parent will spend with the children each year. This method can work if the parents have a simple parenting schedule, such as alternate weekends and alternate holidays. The problem with this method is that it is not very accurate and you may accidentally skip nights, such as vacation time.
2. hand count–Parents can look at a paper calendar and physically count the number of overnight stays in a year. Accounting for non-traditional overnight stays, such as holidays or special events, will improve accuracy. Manual counting increases the risk of human error and it is still easy to miss visits.
3. escrow software–Parents can create a custody schedule on the computer and instantly get an accurate count of each parent’s overnight stays. Every time the schedule changes, the program recalculates the total nights for instant updates.

Calculation of overnight stays in Florida cases

Regardless of the count method parents use, all overnight stays must be added together, including weekdays, weekends, holidays, vacations, and other special events.

To get the parenting time percentage required by state guidelines, Florida parents should take the total overnights and then divide that number by 365. The answer represents the parenting time percentage for the year. For example, if a non-Florida resident parent is hosting the children for 125 nights, this would be 34 percent of the time per year.

Understanding nights and child support

There are three factors in the Florida child support formula: income, number of children, and overnight stays.

Overnight totals are not a factor in sole physical custody. This means that the children spend less than 73 nights with the non-custodial parent. No child support credit is granted in cases of sole physical custody.

Overnight totals are a big part of joint physical custody. It allows the non-resident parent to receive a support adjustment based on the number of overnight stays, from 74 to 182. The more overnight stays you have with your children, the higher the adjustment and the lower the amount.

Child support amounts in Florida are set by the court to ensure that children of divorcing parents always receive financial support. In Florida, several factors contribute to child support calculations, such as income and nights.