Special Needs child support during a divorce?

The only thing I will add to the other great answers is my concern that you are needing to ask the question here. Do you have an attorney? If so, you need to communicate with him/her concerning these issues. If not, it is imperative that you run, not walk, to find an attorney to represent you. Your child's needs must be met and you should not rely on the court to automatically understand and address the issues. Your child's needs must be submitted into evidence properly. You should include assessment and treatment plans obtained from a Pediatric Neuropsychologist. This kind of doctor specializes in these cases and provide more complete reports of your child's needs than a physician and other professionals. Best wishes.

Yes, the child support worksheet has a section where you input the child's monthly medical expenses, daycare expenses and payment of health insurance. You or your attorney will need to have copies of your out of pocket medical expenses and/or special needs expenses to introduce as evidence. The court should average your monthly expenses for your child's special needs. The father's child support will be increased to include his pro-rata share of special needs expenses.

My first piece of advice to you would be to hire an attorney to assist you with process if you have not already done so. It may cost you some money up front, but doing so may pay dividends down the road as attempting to do this own your own may result in you not achieving a fair and equitable outcome for your divorce case and/or child support not being calculated correctly. With that disclaimer in mind, a couple of points should be made. First, with regard to the medical expenses, courts will generally require each parent to pay either an equal or a pro-rata share of the uncovered medical expenses. So the other parent will be required to pay for at least a portion of the uncovered medical expenses in addition to the monthly child support obligation. If the uncovered medical expenses recur regularly, those expenses can also be inputted into the child support worksheet pursuant to the child support guidelines. With regard to the non-medical expenses, the guidelines do allow for upward deviations in certain extraordinary circumstances. Such deviations have to be shown to be in the child's best interests. You would need to present the court with evidence of the extraordinary nature of the expenses that you are incurring as a result of your special needs child. Below I have provided a link to the Child Support Guidelines. Pages 33-37 in particular deal with deviations from the guidelines. Best of luck!

There is a section in the child support worksheet to input additional expenses, including medical and non-medical expenses. If you do not currently have an attorney, I would advise at least consulting with one about the child support worksheet and how to properly calculate your child's additional expenses. The previous answers have addressed what I have said above and more. Please read them and consult with an attorney. Good luck with your case.