Child support obligations continue until the emancipation of a child unless otherwise ordered by the court. Under Minnesota law, child support usually continues until age eighteen. Support may continue beyond age eighteen if a child is still in high school, or if a child is disabled, depending on the statute at the time your court action was initiated.

If your court order is from a state other than Minnesota, the age of emancipation may be another age, rather than age eighteen. If you have questions about emancipation, contact your child support officer.

Closing Your Child Support Case

To close your case with Hennepin County Collections Services the case must be paid in full and must no longer have an ongoing child support obligation. This may happen when the child emancipates and the account is paid in full. It may also happen when the parties make a request to the court to opt out of the services of the child support agency.

The initial request to opt out must be made by the applicant; a request to opt out cannot be made by the child support agency.

Opting Out of Child Support Services

Opt out occurs when the person who applied for services (applicant) wishes to close their non-public assistance case or the non-public assistance portion of their case.

Either the Custodial parent or non-custodial parent applicant can request closure at any time if the custodial parent is not currently receiving public assistance on behalf of the children. If the non-public assistance applicant requests that we close, we will stop collections on all non-public assistance obligations. If any public assistance arrears obligations exist on the case we will continue to collect on only those obligations. If there are no public assistance obligations we will close the case.

If you have an open child support file in Hennepin County and you wish to receive your child support payments directly from the non-custodial parent, you must legally close your file. We can close your file only after all of the following conditions have been met:

  • There are no public assistance arrears in child support or spousal maintenance
  • Neither MFIP, nor MinnesotaCare/Medical Assistance, nor Day Care Assistance is active
  • Payment of support directly to the custodial parent is in the best interests of the child/ren

Requests for closure must be made in writing and should contain the following:

  • Date of the request
  • Full name of person requesting closure
  • Case number(s)
  • Signature

You can print the form DHS 4060 Request to Close Support Case from the Minnesota Department of Human Services web site which has fields for all the necessary information. The form is not required as long as your request is made in writing and contains all the required information.

Send your request to:
Hennepin County CSS
110 South 4th St
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2280

 Emancipation

In MN a child is defined as an individual under the age of 18, or until age 20 if the child is still attending secondary school, or an individual who is incapable of self-support by reason of disability. A child who is in high school and under the age of 20 has not emancipated.

When does child support end?

When your order says it ends.   If silent on a MN order, your child emancipates at 18 or when done with secondary school, if under 20 years old.

What happens when my child turns 18, and the obligor still owes some past-due child support?

Our office will continue collection efforts on past-due child support even after child/ren are emancipated.