The Indiana Supreme Court issued an order amending the Indiana Child Support Guidelines on November 5, 2015. Below I have summarized many of the changes. A copy of the Order can be found here.
- clarifying that the Guidelines apply to “educational support”;
- the Guidelines apply not only to dissolution and paternity actions, but also juvenile proceedings, as well as third-party custodian and guardianship matters;
- deleting language setting minimum support at $12.00 weekly;
- that “if there were specific living expenses being paid by a parent which are now being regularly and continually paid by that parent’s current spouse or a third party, the assumed expenses may be considered imputed income to the parent receiving the benefit”;
- an adjustment to support for subsequent legally adopted children;
- as to health care coverage, if the coverage is provided without cost to the parent(s) then zero should be entered as the amount; and, if health insurance coverage is provided through an employer, only the child(ren)'s portion should be added, and only if the parent actually incurs a cost for it;
- clarified how to credit social security benefits to a custodial parent;
- updating the Guidelines to follow the “new” emancipation age law;
- defines which education expenses are controlled expenses and which are extracurricular expenses;
- incorporates the Affordable Care Act –“The rebuttable presumption that all children have insurance available at a reasonable cost recognizes the purpose of the Affordable Care Act. Courts should consider any exemption under the Affordable Care Act as sufficient to rebut the presumption that insurance is available at a reasonable cost” ;
- a new provision regarding “Self-Monitoringand Compliance” with the requirement to provide coverage, based on the tax penalties in the Affordable Care Act;
- a removal of the HIPW worksheet and provisions;
- the following language related to the FAFSA form and whether the Court should enter a post-secondary expense order; and
- a consideration of how the right to claim a child as a dependent on a parent’s taxes may affect health insurance subsidies or tax penalties under the Affordable Care Act; shall be prorated by the number of persons covered to determine a per person cost.
To discuss this further please contact me.
he Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines were amended (in other words changed) on March 1, 2013. I summarized the changes here and published a copy of of the "new" guidelines here. However, the Guidelines do not automatically apply to cases decided under the "old" parenting time guidelines. Specifically, the "new" Guidelines provide:
Existing parenting time orders in effect on March 1, 2013 shall be enforced according to the parenting time guidelines that were in effect on the date the parenting time order was issued.
Which guidelines apply to your case? In addition to the "new" guidelines there are parenting time guidelines as amended in 2001 (the "old" guidelines). As I did not readily find where the "old"guidelines were available on the Indiana government site so I've published PDF copies of the "old" guidelines here.
Also, the 1997 Hamilton County Visitation Guidelines are here.
o discuss this please contact me. To see all of my postings on this topic search here.
The new child support law holding that support ends at age 19 trumps previous dissolution orders that extended support past age 19. The Indiana Lawyer describes how the Court of Appeals reviewed and decided this issue:
In David A. Turner v. Debbie L. Turner, 85A02-1208-DR-704, David Turner argued that based on the July 2012 amendment to Indiana Code 31-16-6-6, the trial court should have granted his petition to terminate child support for his 19-year-old son Cody. The amendment says the duty to support a child, which does not include support for educational needs, ceases when the child becomes 19, with some exceptions not applicable to the Turners.
When David Turner and his wife Debbie divorced in 2000, the final dissolution decree said that David Turner would pay child support for Cody until he reached the age of 21, or is married, leaves home or is emancipated. After the amendment that decreased the age for termination of child support took effect, David Turner sought to stop paying support for Cody.
Debbie Turner believed the dissolution decree entered in 2000 should remain in place. The trial court noted that the language in the decree was “boilerplate” and reflected Indiana law at the time, but denied David Turner’s petition.
“Indeed, the language used by the trial court in the decree, which tracks most of the situations that would trigger the termination of child support, makes clear that the trial court took its lead from the legislature and followed the existing law at the time of the decree regarding the duration that Father would be required to pay child support for Son,” Judge Rudy Pyle III wrote. “However, the trial court ignored the changes in the law regarding the termination of child support. The trial court’s failure to follow the law as set forth by our legislature was an abuse of discretion.
“The trial court had no discretion to go outside the law set out in the termination of child support statute and to extend Father’s duty to pay child support beyond what is required by the law.”
The judges remanded to the trial court to enter an order granting David Turner’s petition and to terminate child support effective July 1, 2012.
The Turner's surely are not the only divorced parents who agreed that support would continue until the age of 21; however, unless there is clear language to the contrary a support order will likely cease at age 19.