When parents separate, the parenting arrangement and child support are separate questions, but they're linked. Child support assessments take into account each parent's percentage of care, which is usually worked out from the number of nights a child is in each parent's care over a year.
That means a parenting proposal has a child support consequence, and a small change to holidays or special days can move a parent into a different care level. This guide explains the bands and how to count nights. It's general information only: Services Australia decides the percentage of care in each case, based on the actual care arrangements.
How care is counted
Services Australia generally works out a parent's percentage of care from the number of nights the child is expected to be in their care over a 12 month period. Where care isn't measured in nights, other approaches can be used, but nights are the usual starting point.
The care levels
| Nights a year | Percentage of care | Care level |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 51 | Less than 14% | Below regular care |
| 52 to 127 | 14% to less than 35% | Regular care |
| 128 to 237 | 35% to 65% | Shared care |
| 238 to 313 | More than 65% to 86% | Primary care |
| 314 to 365 | More than 86% to 100% | Above primary care |
Within shared care, Services Australia uses finer bands to work out how much of the cost of the child each parent is treated as meeting, so the exact number of nights still matters there too.
Why 128 nights matters
The step from regular care to shared care, at 128 nights (35%), is the one that most often comes up in negotiation. Below it, a parent's care is counted as regular care. At or above it, it's shared care, and the way their care offsets the cost of the child changes.
A standard "alternate weekends plus a midweek night" pattern gives the other parent around 104 nights a year, which is regular care. Add half of the school holidays and a couple of special days, and the same parent can move above 128 nights into shared care.
Counting nights properly
To count nights for a proposal:
- Start from the regular pattern, usually a 14-night (fortnightly) cycle.
- Replace the regular pattern with the school holiday arrangement for each holiday period, using your state's actual term dates.
- Apply special days such as Christmas Eve, Mother's Day and Father's Day.
- Count over a full 12 months from the start of the arrangement.
Doing this by hand is slow and easy to get wrong, especially when holiday periods alternate between years.
Use the result as a pointer
A night count tells you which care level a proposal is likely to fall in, and how close it is to a threshold. It doesn't tell you the dollar amount of child support, which depends on both parents' incomes and other factors. For estimates, Services Australia provides online estimators for the percentage of care and for child support.
How Matter Folio helps
Matter Folio includes a parenting arrangements planner. Build a proposal from a standard pattern, add school holidays from your state's term dates and special days, and it counts nights for each parent over 12 months, shows the care level, and flags when a proposal is within a few nights of a threshold. Save several proposals and compare them side by side. See parenting arrangements.