Parenting time and child support in Michigan
Michigan has no parenting-time threshold. The Michigan Child Support Formula applies a parental time offset computed from each parent’s approximate annual overnights, and that offset applies to every support determination rather than switching on once some count is reached.
Does Michigan have a parenting-time threshold?
No. The Michigan Child Support Formula adjusts base support by a parental time offset computed from each parent’s approximate annual overnights, and that offset applies to every support determination. No minimum number of overnights triggers it, and no count switches the calculation to a different method.
Because the relationship is continuous in Michigan, there is no line to cross and nothing that changes character once it is passed. The practical question is what the schedule really is across a whole year rather than whether it clears a bar, and an order that describes the rotation precisely is what makes the count something either parent can check.
- Michigan — Michigan Child Support Formula Manual § 3.03 (Parental Time Offset). Verified .Verified against the manual as republished by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, because courts.michigan.gov refuses automated retrieval. The exponent in the offset equation has been revised between editions of the manual, so it is deliberately not stated here — the verified finding is that the offset is continuous and unconditioned, not the shape of the curve.
- Washington — RCW 26.19.075(1)(d) (Residential schedule deviation). Verified .The court may deviate where the child spends "a significant amount of time" with the paying parent. There is no numeric overnight or percentage trigger, the amount is evidence-based, and the deviation is barred where it would leave the receiving household unable to meet the child's basic needs.
What to know before you file in Michigan
Michigan runs parenting time through the Friend of the Court, an office attached to each circuit court that investigates, recommends and enforces. That is the practical difference a Michigan parent meets first: the schedule is not only an understanding between two households, it is something a county office will later be asked to read, apply and enforce.
The form below is an ORDER rather than a blank plan, and Michigan is unusual in that. There is no statewide parenting-plan form a Michigan parent fills in before filing: FOC 67 is what the court signs at the end. The schedule a parent writes therefore reaches the court through a motion or a consent agreement, which makes the wording they propose the wording that tends to be ordered.
Because the Michigan offset is computed from approximate annual overnights, the count is worth doing honestly across a whole year rather than estimating from a fortnight. Every overnight moves the result a little here, so a schedule written precisely enough to count — naming the nights, the holiday rotation and the summer — is one the Friend of the Court and both parents can read the same way.
The Michigan form
The State Court Administrative Office form on which a Michigan circuit court records the parenting-time schedule it orders, including the weekday and weekend pattern, the holidays and the terms of exchanges.