Example 1: Mom and Dad are divorced. The decree stipulates that they have joint legal and physical custody of their only child, age 4. The child spends one week with Mom, the next week with Dad, etc. No child support is ordered from either party in the divorce decree. The Mom applies for ADC on behalf of the child. Because the child is in a true joint physical custody arrangement, the income of both parents must be used in the ADC budget, and the unit size is three.
Example 2: mom and Dad are divorced. Their divorce decree stipulates that they have been given joint legal and physical custody of their two children. The children alternate between Mom's and Dad's households, so when Mom has the eight-year-old, Dad has the five-year-old. The following week, the custody switches so that Mom has the five-year-old while Dad has the eight-year-old. The decree orders that Dad will pay $475 a month child support for each child. Dad applies for ADC on behalf of both children. Because the two children are in true joint physical custody, the income of both Dad and Mom must be used and the unit size is four.
Note: Because we are already using all of Dad's income on the ADC budget, we will not count the chid support that he pays on behalf of the two children.
Example 3: Mom and Dad are divorced. Their divorce grants them joint legal custody of their three children, but the physical custody is granted to Mom. Dad has reasonable rights of visitation. This is treated as a single-parent household when Mom applies for ADC on behalf of the children. Dad is a non-custodial parent and we do not use his income on the budget. If Dad pays child support on behalf of the children, we would consider these payments on the budget.