Supreme Court rolls out updated child support calculators

Practitioners and parents alike now have access to updated child support calculators, the Indiana Supreme Court announced Tuesday.

The new calculators were updated to comply with House Enrolled Act 1520, which changes the conditions of terminating a parent’s child support duty.

Under the law, which took effect July 1, a new exception was created to the rule that child support obligations end when a child turns 19. The newly added exception, inserted as subsection (a)(4) of Indiana Code section 31-16-6-6, allows a child support duty to continue if “(t)he child is a full-time student in a secondary school…and a parent or guardian of the child files notice under subsection (c) advising the court that the child continues or will continue to be enrolled in secondary school.”

If those conditions are met, child support will continue until, and terminate upon, the child’s graduation from secondary school.

The new calculators in compliance with this change are available online at courts.in.gov/childsupport. 

The newly updated version for practitioners is intended to provide judges, lawyers, social workers and other professionals who commonly estimate support with a simple calculator for quick data entry. The parents’ version provides extra instructions.

Both updated calculators were designed to be used on various screen sizes and include a new feature that keeps a running tally of the child support amount. The tally feature aims to show how financial information entered affects the amount.

With the new changes, the formerly downloadable child support calculator for Windows is considered obsolete and should no longer be used, the Supreme Court said. Courts are encouraged to stop accepting forms created with that calculator, which include the words “Downloaded Practitioners” in the lower right corner of the form.

Last year, roughly $850 million in child support was collected and paid to Hoosier parents. Child support calculators were used by more than 125,000 people in the last year and are designed to be compliant with state law and the Indiana Child Support Guidelines.

Indiana child support calculators are developed and maintained by the Indiana Office of Judicial Administration, Trial Court Technology division, and the Indiana Judicial Conference Domestic Relations Committee.