Rhode Island uses the Rhode Island Family Court Child Support Guidelines to determine child support obligations. Under the Income Shares model, both parents' incomes are combined to estimate what the family would have spent on the child if the household were intact. The obligation is then divided proportionally based on each parent's contribution to combined gross income.

Rhode Island has several distinctive features in its child support system. Rhode Island includes medical support as an automatic add-on to the basic obligation. The state uses gross income with a relatively straightforward schedule. Rhode Island courts can order either parent to maintain health insurance for the children.

Rhode Island bases calculations on gross income — meaning income before taxes and deductions. This includes wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses, self-employment income, and other sources. The self-support reserve in Rhode Island is $1,325/month, ensuring the paying parent retains enough income to cover basic living expenses.

Rhode Island recognizes "Shared Physical Placement" when the non-custodial parent has the children for at least 128 overnights per year (approximately 35% of the time). When this threshold is met, the standard child support formula is adjusted to reflect the increased direct expenses borne by both parents.

Under Rhode Island's Income Shares approach, the shared parenting adjustment typically calculates each parent's obligation based on their income share, then applies a credit or cross-calculation that accounts for the time each parent directly supports the child. The more overnights the non-custodial parent has, the greater the reduction in their payment — but the adjustment is not dollar-for-dollar because fixed costs like housing don't decrease when the child is away.

Below 128 overnights, Rhode Island generally treats the arrangement as a sole custody situation with standard visitation, and no custody time adjustment is applied to the child support calculation.