The question I get whenever something in the law changes is a version of the same one: does my order change too?
It doesn’t. That is the most useful thing to know about what happened to Texas child support last year, and it is the part almost nobody hears.
On September 1, 2025, the ceiling Texas uses to calculate guideline child support moved from $9,200 a month to $11,700 a month. It was the first change since 2019. For most families it changed nothing at all. For a smaller group of North Texas parents it changed a good deal, and no one is going to call and tell them.
What the cap actually is
Texas calculates guideline child support as a percentage of the paying parent’s monthly net resources. Twenty percent for one child, twenty five percent for two, thirty percent for three, and up from there.
Net resources is not salary, and the difference matters. It starts with income from nearly every source, then subtracts Social Security taxes, federal income tax calculated for a single person claiming one exemption, union dues, and the cost of the child’s health and dental coverage. What survives that subtraction is the number the percentages apply to.
The cap limits how much of that number the percentages are allowed to touch. Under Texas Family Code section 154.125, guideline support is calculated on net resources up to the cap and not a dollar above it. Earn more than the cap and the guideline math simply stops.
So one child used to top out at $1,840 a month under the guidelines. It now tops out at $2,340. Two children moved from $2,300 to $2,925.
This was not a new law, which is worth saying because several write-ups have credited it to a bill. Section 154.125 has always required the cap to be reviewed every six years and adjusted for inflation. The Office of the Attorney General runs that calculation and publishes the result in the Texas Register. The last one landed in 2019, this one in 2025, and the next is due in 2031.
Who this does not affect
Start here, because it is most people.
If the paying parent’s monthly net resources are below $9,200, nothing changed. The cap was never the limiting factor in that order. The percentages were already being applied to the whole amount, and they still are.
If net resources are above $9,200, the old order was almost certainly capped, and the guideline number for that same income today is higher. That is the group worth a second look.
There’s a third situation that gets missed. Where income ran well above the cap and the court ordered support above the guideline amount based on the proven needs of the child, the reasoning in that order was never just arithmetic. Those orders need an actual read, not a rule of thumb.
An old order does not update itself
This is where the misconception does real damage. The cap moving does not move your order. Your order says what it says until a judge signs a different one. There is no automatic recalculation and no notice in the mail.
Changing it means filing a modification, and Texas gives you two doors.
The first is a material and substantial change in circumstances since the order was signed. A significant change in either parent’s income, a change in the children’s needs, or a change in where the children primarily live can all qualify.
The second is more mechanical and often the easier one to walk through. Under Texas Family Code section 156.401, if the order is at least three years old and the current guideline amount differs from what the order says by either twenty percent or $100, that alone can support a modification. For a parent whose support was capped at the old figure, that gap opens up faster than people expect.
What to weigh before you file
A modification opens the support calculation, not only the part you want changed. Both households come into view. Income that has gone up gets examined, and so does income that has gone down.
That is not a reason to avoid filing. It’s a reason to know your own numbers first.
It also matters that a modification reaches back only to the date the motion is filed, not to the date the cap changed. Waiting is not free.
One more thing worth naming. Net resources above the cap usually means income that isn’t a simple paycheck: an ownership interest, distributions, a closely held company. Those cases turn on how the income is characterized, which is as much a business question as a family law one. We keep civil and business counsel in house rather than referring that piece out, so the same team looks at the entity and the support calculation together.
What to do
Find your order, look at the date it was signed and the monthly amount, and if it predates September 2025 with net resources anywhere near $9,200, run the current number against it.
If you would like someone to look at your order and tell you plainly whether it’s worth revisiting, our attorneys handle child support modifications in Collin, Dallas, and Denton counties from our Frisco office. Call us at 469-598-1080 to schedule a consultation.