The Workgroup makes the following recommendations regarding the residential schedule credit:
The Workgroup recommends that there should be a residential schedule credit to adjust the transfer payment, and that credit should be based on the number of overnights. There should be a mechanism to adjust the credit when necessary. The credit should be available in both the courts and the administrative forum, and the credit should not be granted if doing so would result in insufficient funds in the custodial parent’s household.
The Workgroup recommends that there should be an adjustment of the child support obligation – not a deviation – based on the child’s residential schedule. This concept is referred to as a residential schedule credit.70 While recognizing that there are many approaches to calculating a residential schedule credit, the Workgroup recommends that the easiest method for determining the credit or adjustment would be a method based on the number of overnights which the child spends with each parent. Although there are some family situations which would not fit nicely into the “overnights” scenario, the Workgroup members believed that the majority of cases would be amenable to such a calculation. [Page 23, Worksheet Study Group Report]
Left in this form, the proposed legislation would retain existing RCW 26.19.075(1)(d), thus eviscerating any hope that a mechanism other than arguing for a "deviation" might be available for obtaining a residential credit.
