Child support is generally intended to help with the costs of raising the child—including food, clothing, shelter, and education—but laws vary from state to state and are often unclear on the extent to which child support payments are intended to help the custodial parent pay for half of school supplies, health care, braces, glasses, dental care, uninsured medical care, transportation (car), daycare, sports camps, cheerleading camps, school trips, social activities, and extracurricular activities.

Most state laws (statutes) don’t identify the specific child-rearing costs to which the custodial parent is required to contribute payment from child support and other resources—and because these issues are frequently the source of parental conflict, parents should identify all expected future costs and agree to the process for sharing them.

In Oklahoma, child support is designed to cover the basic needs of a child, which include food, clothing, shelter, and education. The state follows the Income Shares Model for calculating child support, which takes into account the income of both parents and aims to provide the child with the same proportion of parental income that they would have received if the parents lived together. While Oklahoma law provides guidelines for the calculation of child support, it does not explicitly list all specific child-rearing expenses such as school supplies, health care, braces, glasses, dental care, uninsured medical expenses, transportation, daycare, and extracurricular activities. However, the law does recognize that health insurance and medical support are part of child support obligations. Parents are encouraged to discuss and agree upon how to handle these additional expenses, and such agreements can be included in the child support order. If parents cannot agree, they may seek a court's intervention to decide on these matters. It is advisable for parents to consult with an attorney to draft a comprehensive agreement that addresses the sharing of these additional child-rearing costs.