Termination of Parental Rights in Indiana: Grounds and Defenses

Termination of parental rights in Indiana permanently ends the legal relationship between a parent and child. The state can pursue it involuntarily when a child is at risk, or a parent can consent to it voluntarily, usually as part of an adoption plan. In an involuntary case, the Department of Child Services must prove four statutory elements by clear and convincing evidence, and the court must independently find that termination serves the child’s best interests before signing the order.¹ Once the order is final, it is meant to be permanent.

The Four Elements the State Must Prove

Indiana’s involuntary termination statute has four required elements. All four must be established. If the state falls short on any one, the petition fails, and the court has no discretion to overlook the gap because the other elements are strong.

Time Out of the Parent’s Care

The petition must show at least one of the following: the child has been removed from the parent for at least six months under a court order, the child has been under state or probation supervision for at least 15 of the most recent 22 months since removal, or a court has already found that reunification efforts are not required.¹

Future Risk

The state must prove at least one of three things: a reasonable probability that the conditions leading to removal will not be remedied, a reasonable probability that continuing the parent-child relationship poses a threat to the child’s well-being, or that the child has been found to be a child in need of services on two separate occasions.¹ Most contested cases are fought here. Courts look at whether you completed required services, maintained stable housing, addressed substance abuse or mental health issues, and engaged consistently with the case plan. A parent who genuinely turned things around between removal and the hearing has real ground to stand on.

Best Interests of the Child

The court must find that termination is in the child’s best interests. Judges weigh the child’s need for permanency, the quality of the current placement, and the likelihood the parent can provide a safe home going forward. The Indiana Court of Appeals has noted that the evidence “need not reveal that the continued custody of the parents is wholly inadequate for the child’s very survival” but must show the child’s emotional and physical development are threatened by the parent’s custody.

A Satisfactory Plan for the Child

The petitioner must present a satisfactory plan for the child’s care and treatment after termination.¹ Adoption is the most common plan, but another permanent arrangement can qualify if the court is satisfied the child will be safe and cared for.

When DCS Is Required to File

The decision to file a termination petition is not always discretionary. Under Indiana Code 31-35-2-4.5, DCS or another authorized party must file when certain triggers are met: a court has found reunification efforts are not required, or the child has been removed and under state supervision for at least 15 of the most recent 22 months.² The rule tracks the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act, which pushes states toward permanency for children lingering in foster care.

The statute recognizes exceptions. The authorized party can move to dismiss the petition if compelling circumstances exist, including situations where the child is being cared for by a relative, where DCS has not delivered the family services in the case plan, or where the undelivered services are substantial enough that the parent has not had a fair chance to demonstrate improvement.² An incarcerated parent who has maintained a meaningful role in the child’s life is another recognized exception, though the statute requires additional findings before the court can accept it.

When Courts Skip Reunification Efforts

Indiana normally requires the state to make reasonable efforts to reunify a family before pursuing termination. Serious cases allow the court to bypass that step. Under Indiana Code 31-34-21-5.6, reasonable efforts are not required when a parent has been convicted of certain violent crimes against a child or the child’s other parent, including murder, voluntary manslaughter, serious felony battery, aggravated battery, felony criminal recklessness, felony neglect of a dependent, and human trafficking offenses.³

A court can also bypass reunification when the parent’s rights to a sibling of the child have already been involuntarily terminated. If the earlier case ran its full course and the parent did not correct the underlying problems, the case moves toward the termination petition without the usual period of services and compliance.

Voluntary Termination

Not every termination is contested. Indiana Code 31-35-1 governs voluntary termination, where a parent consents to end the legal relationship, typically as part of an adoption plan. The process still requires a petition, a hearing, and judicial approval. The court must advise the parent of the consequences and investigate whether the consent was given freely, without fraud or coercion. Once the order is final, the outcome is the same as an involuntary termination: the parent-child relationship is over.

How a Contested Case Moves

Who Can File

Only three parties are authorized to sign and file an involuntary termination petition: the attorney for DCS, the child’s court-appointed special advocate (CASA), or the child’s guardian ad litem.¹ If a CASA or guardian ad litem files, DCS must be joined as a party.² The petition goes to the juvenile or probate court with jurisdiction over the underlying CHINS case, along with the court’s approved permanency plan.

Hearing Deadlines

Indiana imposes strict timing on TPR hearings. Once the petition is filed, the court must begin the hearing within 90 days and complete it within 180 days.⁴ If the court misses those deadlines and a party files a motion pointing that out, the court must dismiss unless the delay was caused by emergent circumstances, the specific facts of the case, or application of the trial procedure rules. Dismissal is without prejudice, so the state can refile, but the clock resets.

Burden of Proof

The standard in Indiana TPR cases is clear and convincing evidence, which sits between the ordinary civil preponderance standard and the criminal beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard.⁵ Both sides can present witnesses, including social workers, therapists, and medical professionals. The court also reviews DCS reports, case plans, and documentation of the parent’s compliance or noncompliance with court-ordered services.

Your Right to a Lawyer

If you are a parent facing a termination petition in Indiana and you do not have an attorney, the court must appoint one. This is not discretionary. Indiana Code 31-32-4-3 requires the juvenile court to appoint counsel for any parent in a termination proceeding who does not already have a lawyer, unless the parent has lawfully waived that right.⁶ The appointment must happen at the initial hearing or earlier. Indiana’s rule is broader than the federal constitutional floor, which under Lassiter v. Department of Social Services leaves appointed counsel to a case-by-case analysis.

Having a lawyer appointed does not mean you can sit back. Your attorney can challenge the state’s evidence, cross-examine witnesses, present evidence of rehabilitation, and argue that termination is not in the child’s best interests. But the lawyer can only work with what you provide. Showing up to meetings, completing services, and keeping your attorney informed about your progress is what separates a strong defense from a hollow one.

Extra Protections When ICWA Applies

If the child is an Indian child as defined by federal law, the Indian Child Welfare Act adds requirements that override Indiana’s standard procedures in significant ways.

The burden of proof is higher. ICWA requires the state to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and the proof must include testimony from a qualified expert witness that keeping the child with the parent is likely to result in serious emotional or physical harm.⁷ Most courts expect that expert to have knowledge of the cultural and social practices of the child’s tribe.

The state must also demonstrate that it made “active efforts” to provide services designed to prevent the breakup of the Indian family and that those efforts failed.⁷ Active efforts is a more demanding standard than the reasonable efforts required in non-ICWA cases. The tribe has a right to intervene, and failure to comply with ICWA can be grounds for overturning a termination order.

Defending Against a Termination Petition

The strongest defense in most cases is showing that the conditions leading to removal have genuinely been fixed. If you were ordered to complete substance abuse treatment, maintain stable housing, hold a job, and attend parenting classes, evidence that you have actually done those things carries real weight. Courts do not expect perfection, but they need to see sustained, meaningful change rather than last-minute efforts made after the petition was filed.

You can attack any of the four required elements. If DCS did not deliver the services in your case plan, that failure undermines the argument that conditions will not be remedied. If the proposed post-termination plan for the child is vague or unrealistic, the fourth element is vulnerable. You can always argue that termination is not in the child’s best interests, particularly if the child has a strong bond with you and is not at risk of harm.

The 15-of-22-month timeline has its own defenses. If a significant part of that period was consumed by DCS failing to deliver promised services, or if your incarceration was the primary reason the child remained in care and you maintained a meaningful relationship, the mandatory filing exceptions can be raised.²

Appealing a Termination Order

If the court terminates your rights, you have 30 days from the date the final judgment is entered in the court’s records to file a notice of appeal.⁸ Missing that deadline almost certainly forecloses appeal. If you or your attorney files a motion to correct error in the trial court, the 30-day clock resets and runs from the date the court rules on that motion or the motion is deemed denied.

The appellate court does not retry the case or reweigh the evidence. It examines whether the trial court applied the law correctly and whether sufficient evidence supported the decision, giving deference to the trial judge’s factual findings because the judge saw the witnesses firsthand. Overturning a termination requires showing that the trial court’s conclusions were clearly erroneous or that a legal error affected the outcome. That is a high bar, but not insurmountable, especially when the trial court failed to address one of the four required elements or applied the wrong standard.

What Happens After Termination

Once the order is final, the parent loses every legal connection to the child. Custody, visitation, and the authority to make decisions about the child’s education, medical care, and upbringing all end. The parent’s obligation to pay child support ends as well. The child typically loses the right to inherit from the biological parent through intestate succession, though a parent can still name the child in a will.

There is no right to visitation after termination and no legal standing to seek information about the child. Some adoptive families maintain contact through open adoption agreements, but Indiana law does not require it, and those agreements are not always enforceable.

A number of states have enacted reinstatement statutes that allow parents to petition to restore terminated rights in narrow circumstances, usually when the child was never adopted and remains in foster care. Indiana does not have a well-established statutory framework comparable to states like California, Colorado, or Illinois. If reinstatement is a question in your situation, consult a family law attorney about the current state of Indiana law, because the legislative picture can change. The practical reality is that termination in Indiana should be treated as permanent, which is why contesting the petition before it is granted matters far more than trying to undo it later.

1
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 31-35-2-4 – Petition Contents Filing of Permanency
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Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 31-35-2-4.5 – Petition Filing Motion to Dismiss
3
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code Title 31 Section 31-34-21-5.6
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Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 31-35-2-6 – Request for Hearing Timing
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Child Welfare Information Gateway. Grounds for Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights
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Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 31-32-4-3 – Court Appointment of Counsel to Parents
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 25 USC 1912 – Pending Court Proceedings
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Indiana Courts. Rule 9 Initiation of the Appeal