Indiana Family Law Guide
Use this page when you need the broader Indiana workflow: current support rules, DCS enrollment and paternity path, age-19 termination checkpoints, and the state’s limited maintenance structure.
Child support
Indiana’s support rules still rely on an income-shares model, current court worksheets, parenting-time credits, and official schedules.
DCS process
Indiana DCS and county prosecutor relationships still drive paternity, enrollment, local office workflow, payment history, and many enforcement steps.
Maintenance
Indiana maintenance remains narrow, with focus on incapacity, caregiving for an incapacitated child, and temporary rehabilitative support.
Use This With Other Indiana Tools
Support pages should route back into the core Indiana calculators and legal explainers.
Review the guideline rules, tables, and core legal standards for this state.
See how the Indiana child support formula and worksheet logic are structured.
Start from the broad Indiana support overview and route into the right tool.
The current Indiana child support baseline
Indiana DCS still explains child support as a court-ordered financial obligation governed by the Indiana Child Support Rules and Guidelines. The courts keep the official calculator, current worksheets, and weekly support schedules online, and the current rules became effective on May 14, 2024.
Indiana’s support obligations generally terminate when a child turns 19, but the official DCS pages still describe court-recognized exceptions and make clear that parties must petition the court for early termination or for post-emancipation recalculation when multiple children remain on the order.
How the Indiana DCS workflow fits in
- Establish paternity if needed. Indiana’s official paternity page still treats paternity as the first step toward enforceable support for many families.
- Enroll with DCS or your local office. Indiana still offers online enrollment and county-level office routing for both custodial and non-custodial parents.
- Move through the court or county process. Local county prosecutor offices help determine what services the case needs once enrollment is submitted.
- Track payment and enforcement tools. Indiana still uses withholding, refund intercepts, license actions, liens, and other enforcement mechanisms when cases go delinquent.
Why Indiana maintenance needs a separate lens
Indiana maintenance is not just “alimony with a different label.” The current code still limits maintenance to a few narrow categories, and the official appellate materials continue to emphasize that rehabilitative maintenance is not open-ended.
If your Indiana case includes both support and maintenance questions, start with the child support worksheet path first, then layer in maintenance eligibility under Indiana Code § 31-15-7-2.
Indiana source set for this guide
- Indiana Child Support Rules and Guidelines
- Indiana Judicial Branch child support calculator page
- Indiana DCS general information
- Indiana DCS paternity
- Indiana DCS enrollment
- Indiana Code Title 31