Child support is intended to cover the basic needs for the child when the child is in your care. Child support also factors in things like work and school-related childcare costs, and extraordinary expenses for the child. For example, if the child needs to go to a private school due to special needs, that would be factored into child support. Under certain circumstances, when there is a long-distance parenting plan, the child support would also consider cost of exercising your parenting time, so if you lived in different states, that could also be factored into child support. Essentially, child support is intended to cover food, clothing, shelter, and other basic needs for the child when the child is in your care.