Child support is a term applied to any payments made by one child's parent to another.
Generally, the non-custodial parent is the one making the payments and the child's custodial parent or state assigned caregiver is the receiver.
The details of a child visitation and support case are generally arranged after a divorce proceeding or paternity suit, with the exact amount being set by a family law judge.
As far as child custody and support rights are concerned, cases are sometimes decided separately.
In most cases, the child maintenance amount and visitation rights can be decided upon at the same time.
Some cases, though, are more complicated and therefore require more deliberation.
A parent that has abused their child will most likely be denied contact with him or her and still be ordered to pay child support for them.
If the residential caregiver can prove in court that the non-custodial parent has an abominable or abusive behavior, then authorities in family court may cut visitation and still order that parent to pay child maintenance.
In that same vein, parents that opt not to pursue a relationship with their children will still be ordered to provide some sort of support to the custodial parent or caregiver.
Courts have ruled that it is a child's right to receive financial support from their parents.
Although paying child support does not inherently garner you the right to see the child, failing to pay in no way means that visitation rights are to be revoked.
If a non-custodial parent has been granted the right to see their child or children, whether through the courts or private agreement, they can not be denied those visits.
This also means that the person caring for the child is not allowed to punish a non-custodial parent for failing to pay by forbidding contact.
In most states, the amount of money that a parent pays in child support is directly correlated to the amount of time spent with the child.
For example, a mother or father that spends three days a week with their offspring will pay less child maintenance than one who only spends two.
Sadly, sometimes this rule is taken advantage of by cheap parents seeking a break from their child support payments.
It is the job of the individual family case workers to determine whether or not a parent is requesting more visitation days purely to reduce their maintenance payments.