The non-custodial parent owes me over $30,000 in back child support, how will this affect my bankruptcy estate?

Yes, you should claim the arrearage owed; it should be totally exempt.

There is a federal exemption for any amount of child support arrears, so you should list them on Schedule B and exempt them on Schedule C. The $400 monthly amount you do receive must be reported on Schedule I and on the means test.

Although child support is an exempt asset, the receipt of child support payments can be considered as income for your household to determine the amount of your plan payments. To adequately answer this question, I would need to understand your goals in attempting to file chapter 13.

Usually, there is no effect on a Chapter 7 bankruptcy from a large back child support obligation. First, there is a conditional exemption for child support in the Federal exemptions. That means that even if the Trustee is able to collect it from the deadbeat parent, most or all of it would go to you which certainly reduces the Trustee's incentive to spend time and money to pursue the money. Second, usually deadbeat parents either simply don't have the money or they have hid the money well. All Trustees know that suing deadbeat parents very seldom nets them any money, so they usually don't bother.

In Idaho Child Support is protected. The bankruptcy trustee cannot go after it unless you give permission to do so. The protections come from the exemptions. Idaho is required to use state exemptions and cannot use federal, so I am not familiar with the federal exemptions. Make sure your state allows use of the federal exemptions. Yes, you do count the money amount received as income.