Child Support

Indiana bases a parent’s child support obligation on these factors:

• Gross income each parent is earning
• Gross income each parent is able to earn
• Whether either parent receives benefits that may be imputed as income
• The number of children of the parties’
• Prior born or subsequently born children of either party
• The amount either party pays for work-related childcare
• The number of overnights the children spend with each parent each year

Once a child support order is in place, you may ask the Court to modify the child support order if you have reason to believe that any of the above factors have changed enough to impact the amount of the current child support order by more than 20%, as long it has been more than twelve months since the previous child support order was issued.

Under current Indiana law, parents have a legal duty to support a child until a child turns 19 years of age. If a child has a disability or is planning to attend college, a Court may order a parent to support a child past his or her 19th birthday.

For more information on child support, please read the Indiana Child Support Guidelines and review the Indiana Child Support Calculator for parents.