Waivers
What are Indiana's HCBS waivers?
- Family Supports Waiver (FSW)
- Indiana's non-residential IDD waiver: limited supports for children and adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities living with family or informal supports — day habilitation, respite, behavioral support, therapies, participant assistance, transportation. Current version effective December 31, 2025.
- Community Integration and Habilitation Waiver (CIH)
- The residential-level IDD waiver: everything FSW covers plus Residential Habilitation and Support (supported-living services). Entry is needs-based — applicants must meet a priority criterion such as caregiver death or incapacity, aging out of state care, or an approved extraordinary health-and-safety risk, and a funded slot must be available.
- Health and Wellness Waiver
- Created July 1, 2024 when Indiana split the former Aged and Disabled Waiver into Health and Wellness (ages 59 and younger, nursing-facility level of care) and PathWays for Aging (60 and older, managed care). Helps people remain in their own homes or leave nursing facilities.
- The Family Supports Waiver uses a single statewide waiting list worked in application-date order, with priority carve-outs (for example, dependents of active-duty military and veterans, and students leaving school settings). Indiana does not publish a current FSW headcount on a primary source.
- As of July 2026, the state's own waitlist page reports the Health and Wellness Waiver at 16,127 allocated slots with 7,002 people waiting (700 invitations sent that month), and PathWays for Aging at 38,842 slots with 11,277 waiting.
- A 'Waiver Reset' is underway: FSSA plans to replace the four current BDS waivers with a Youth Waiver (targeted July 2027) and new adult waivers (targeted 2028); current recipients will not need to reapply. A contracted case-management-organization model takes effect August 1, 2026.
Agencies
Who runs services in Indiana?
- FSSA — Division of Disability, Aging and Rehabilitative Services (Bureau of Disabilities Services)
- Administers the FSW, CIH, Health & Wellness, and TBI waivers through eight district offices — families apply for IDD waivers at their local BDS district office.
- Indiana Medicaid
- Medicaid eligibility itself — a separate application from the waiver — plus direct operation of the PathWays for Aging managed-care program.
- First Steps (Bureau of Child Development Services)
- Indiana's early-intervention program for children from birth to age three with developmental delays or disabilities.
- Indiana Department of Education — Office of Special Education
- The state education agency for special education and Indiana's Article 7 rules.
School
What's specific about IEPs in Indiana?
- Indiana's special-education rules are 'Article 7' (511 IAC 7-32 through 7-50), and Indiana calls the IEP team the case conference committee (CCC).
- After written parental consent, the initial educational evaluation must be conducted and the CCC convened within 50 instructional days (511 IAC 7-40-5(d)).
- IN*SOURCE is Indiana's federally designated parent training and information center for families navigating special education.
Sources: FSSA BDS Medicaid HCBS waivers (as of 2026-07) · FSSA HCBS waiver waiting-list information (as of 2026-07) · FSSA BDS Waiver Reset (as of 2026-07) · IDOE special-education laws (Article 7) (as of 2026-07) · 511 IAC 7-40-5 (evaluation timeline) (as of 2026-07). General information, not legal or benefits advice.