Payment by parent or guardian for cost of services provided by department of correction

Sec. 3.5. (a) If a juvenile court:

(1) adjudicates a child to be a delinquent child; and

(2) awards wardship of the child to the department of correction;

the juvenile court may conduct a hearing. The juvenile court shall use the Child Support Rules and Guidelines of the Indiana supreme court and the child support obligation worksheet developed by the Indiana supreme court to determine what each parent should pay for the services provided for the child under this section. If the parent participates with the treatment plans developed by the department of correction, the parent or parents are entitled to receive a parenting time credit under the Child Support Rules and Guidelines. The hearing may be conducted before or after the department of correction incurs costs for a child.

(b) Each parent shall, before a hearing under subsection (a), furnish the juvenile court and the department of correction with an accurately completed and current child support obligation worksheet on the same form that is prescribed by the Indiana supreme court for child support orders.

(c) A juvenile court may not order a parent to pay or reimburse the department of correction unless the juvenile court makes a specific finding that the parent is able to pay.

(d) If, after a hearing, the juvenile court orders a parent to pay or reimburse costs, the parent is financially responsible for the costs of treatment services incurred by the department of correction.

(e) Any parental reimbursement obligation under this section shall be paid directly to the clerk of the court so long as the juvenile delinquency case is open. The clerk of the court shall keep track of all payments made by each parent and shall provide a receipt for each payment received. At the end of the juvenile delinquency action, the clerk of the court shall provide an accounting of payments received, and the juvenile court may consider additional evidence of payment activity and determine the amount of parental reimbursement obligation that remains unpaid. The juvenile court shall reduce the unpaid balance to a final judgment that may be enforced in any court having jurisdiction over such matters.

(f) After a judgment for unpaid parental reimbursement obligation is rendered, payments made toward satisfaction of the judgment shall be made to the clerk of the court in the county where the enforcement action is filed and shall be forwarded promptly to the department of correction in the same manner as any other judgment payment.

(g) The department of correction may compromise a claim owed by a parent under this section. The department of correction, after obtaining the advice of the attorney general, may notify the court of a parental reimbursement obligation that is willfully ignored.

(h) Upon release from the department of correction, the parental reimbursement obligation payment to the department of correction ends. If there was a child support order for the child adjudicated delinquent, it reverts to the most recent child support order in effect before the child's adjudication. If the child is placed with a person other than a custodial parent, the juvenile court shall establish a new support order for the benefit of the child being released from the department of correction.

(i) The department of correction shall deposit money collected under this section in the division of youth services transitional services fund established by IC 11-10-2-11.

As added by P.L.204-2011, SEC.4. Amended by P.L.151-2023, SEC.2.