About The Support Index
The Support Index exists to turn hard-to-read child support rules into practical, state-specific guidance that parents and professionals can actually use.
Founder
Sam McDougal is the founder of The Support Index and AusChildSupport. He built these projects to make child support calculations and related legal guidance easier to understand without pretending that a public calculator replaces case-specific legal advice.
Before building these platforms, Sam worked in child support for roughly three years. That experience shaped the editorial standard behind The Support Index: explain the formula in plain English, show the assumptions clearly, and identify where people are better served by getting tailored professional advice.
The goal is practical clarity. Child support rules are often explained through agency materials, court forms, and state-specific worksheets that are accurate but difficult for ordinary users to interpret quickly. The Support Index is designed to close that gap.
Each state uses its own child support framework, and the differences matter. Parents often search for quick answers when the underlying rules are fragmented across statutes, worksheets, and agency guidance.
The Support Index publishes calculators and guides that aim to make those rules easier to compare and easier to apply at the first-pass estimate stage.
Sam also founded AusChildSupport, an Australia-focused child support calculator and content site built around the same trust-first approach: explain the formula clearly, cite the underlying rules, and make it easier for users to know when professional advice is warranted.
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