Indiana DSP Training Requirements

The requirements at a glance

Indiana FSSA/DDARS, BDS, and the two rulebooks

Indiana delivers community disability supports through the Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA), its Division of Disability, Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DDARS), and the Indiana Bureau of Disabilities Services (BDS). Services are funded through Indiana Health Coverage Programs (IHCP), with OMPP as the single state agency, on the Family Supports (FS, also FSW) and Community Integration and Habilitation (CIH) waivers. The person is an individual, the plan is the Person-Centered Individualized Support Plan (PCISP), and the team that builds it is the Individualized Support Team (IST).

Two rulebooks set staff requirements, and they do not agree. 460 IAC 6 governs waiver services — its title, “Supported Living Services and Supports,” misleads outsiders, but it is the waiver rule. 460 IAC 9 governs Supervised Group Living (SGL) — group homes serving four to eight people, funded on an ICF/IID-style per diem rather than waiver dollars. Annual training, the incident clock, background checks and TB testing all differ between the two. Name the setting before you state a requirement. One more thing to expect: 460 IAC now says “DDARS” and “BDS,” but plenty of documents built on it still say “DDRS” and “BDDS.” The rules were updated; saved PDFs, manuals and the approved waiver applications lag behind. Both refer to the same agency — just pull rule text from the current Indiana Administrative Code rather than a downloaded copy.

HCSP: the state credential you cannot skip — or buy

Indiana mandates the HCSP (Home and Community Support Professional) credential under IC 12-11-16. Per IHCP bulletins BT202612 and BT202613, for dates of service on or after January 1, 2026, an individual may not provide direct support services as an HCSP unless registered in the HCSP Training Registry. Job title does not matter — what matters is whether the person provides applicable FS or CIH waiver services. There is no grandfathering; tenure exempts no one.

The training itself is provided free by the State of Indiana on the state’s own platform — Foundations and Fundamentals, e-learning plus online competency exams, 80% per module with three attempts, covering twelve core competencies. The credential is portable across enrolled providers and publicly visible in the registry. No private vendor, DSPlife™ TrainingHub included, can supply the HCSP credential or stand in for it. If a training company suggests otherwise, check the registry — an unregistered staff member is legally barred from working, no matter what else they have completed.

Two things are genuinely unsettled, and it is worth knowing that rather than guessing. Indiana has signalled that periodic recertification will be required, but no interval is settled in adopted rule. And whether HCSP reaches staff who work only in Supervised Group Living is not addressed in published guidance — no source says those staff are exempt. Confirm with BDS rather than assuming an exemption.

Pre-service training: there is no grace period

460 IAC 6-14-4(d) is short and unforgiving: applicable training must be completed prior to any person working with an individual. Indiana has no “within 30 days of hire” allowance anywhere in its DD rules. Every employee must be trained to respect an individual’s dignity, protect against abuse, neglect and exploitation, implement person-centered planning and the support plan, and communicate successfully with the individual. Direct care staff add the health and safety list at 460 IAC 6-14-4(c): administering medication and recognizing side effects and interactions, first aid, CPR, infection control, universal precautions, emergency drills and evacuations, and individual-specific management of seizures, behavior, medication side effects, diet and nutrition, swallowing difficulties, emotional and physical crises, and significant health concerns.

Staff must also be at least 18 (460 IAC 6-14-5(1)) — and note that Indiana requires no diploma or GED. On top of the general list, individual-specific training comes before a staff member works with each particular person: their health and risk needs, behavioral supports, diet, swallowing, medications and side effects, mobility, communication mode, and their plan outcomes. In Supervised Group Living, 460 IAC 9-3-3(b)(2) requires orientation and training in the tasks of the facility, including life safety training, before independently assuming the position.

Annual training: what “competency-based” actually means

Indiana defines competency-based training as learning demonstrated through observable performance — role play or real settings — in addition to passing a written post-test. That is the standard for waiver DSPs, and it comes with no annual hour count whatsoever. What is binding is 460 IAC 6-16-3(b)(4): an annual in-service to improve competence in three named areas — protection of individual rights including protection against abuse, neglect or exploitation, incident reporting, and medication administration where the provider administers medication. Three topics. No hours.

Supervised Group Living is different. 460 IAC 9-3-3(c) requires at least 24 hours of training per residential staff person per year, documented and retained. That is the only genuine annual DSP hour count in Indiana DD services, and it does not generalize to waiver staff. Two other numbers circulate and belong to other people: the 20 hours a year in 460 IAC 6-19-2 is a case manager requirement, and the 16-hour figure attached to HCSP is a one-time ceiling on initial training, not an annual obligation. If you see an annual hour number attached to a waiver DSP, it is wrong.

Medication: Core A and Core B

In Indiana, most hands-on medication administration in supported living sites and group homes is done by direct support professionals. The credential is Core A and Core B, and its controls are unusually specific: it must be taught in person by a licensed nurse trained through the state’s train-the-trainer curriculum; 85% minimum on each of the two written tests with two attempts before the course must be repeated; and a 100% accurate return demonstration on tablets, capsules and liquids. Every other form of medication is gated individually — training and a satisfactory observation on that form before a staff member administers it. In group homes, a certified staff member must be present whenever individuals are there, including when nobody is scheduled to take anything; in supported living that same practice is recommended rather than required.

Two boundaries matter and are routinely confused. Indiana does not use a nurse-delegation framework for DD waiver medication administration — unlicensed staff administer under a statutory exemption, after nurse-taught training and nurse-verified competency. And the QMA credential is not the DD credential: it belongs to licensed health facilities, Indiana’s DD rules never authorize it, and it confers no authority in a waiver setting. Finally, Core A and Core B carry no state renewal mandate — but that does not mean nothing is due annually. The medication in-service under 460 IAC 6-16-3(b)(4)(C) is separately required, with no hour count. State both halves or you will mislead someone. Medication errors — wrong or unprescribed medication, incorrect dosage, missed dose, wrong time — are reportable incidents; a documented refusal is not an error and is handled under 460 IAC 6-25-5.

Behavior support, rights and restrictions

460 IAC 6-9-3(c) prohibits corporal punishment, seclusion — placing an individual alone in a room or area from which exit is prevented — verbal abuse, denial without a physician’s order of sleep, shelter, food, drink, prolonged physical movement, medical care or bathroom access, and unpaid labor benefiting others. Behavior support runs under 460 IAC 6-18, and since December 31, 2025 behavior support plans, functional behavioral assessments and quarterly reports must use the state-provisioned templates from the BDS Portal — an Indiana requirement with few parallels elsewhere.

Indiana’s Human Rights Committees are the division’s own regional committees. Providers cooperate with the regional HRC for their area rather than convening their own, and every restriction requires HRC approval — a restriction is a restriction regardless of type. Members of the affected individual’s support team may not participate in the deliberation. Approval does not excuse reporting: every physical or mechanical restraint, every aversive technique and every behavior-related PRN is a reportable incident regardless of whether it was planned, HRC-approved, or consented to. Indiana requires competency in emergency behavioral support and physical intervention techniques, but it does not mandate a specific national curriculum — if a vendor tells you Indiana requires one by name, it does not.

Incident reporting and the duty to report abuse

Indiana runs different incident clocks by setting. In waiver services, 460 IAC 6-9-5 requires an initial report within 24 hours of the incident or of the reporter becoming aware of it, filed by the provider serving the individual through IFUR (Incident and Follow-Up Reporting) — not the BDS Gateway, which is where individuals and families apply for services. The case management organization then files follow-up reports within seven days and every seven days thereafter until the incident is resolved. In Supervised Group Living, 460 IAC 9-3-1(b) requires notice to the division by telephone no later than the first business day. Where abuse, neglect or exploitation is alleged, the provider must also suspend the staff involved pending its own investigation.

Reporting abuse is a separate, personal duty. Indiana is a universal mandated-reporter state: IC 12-10-3-9 obligates any individual who believes or has reason to believe another individual is an endangered adult to report — and telling a supervisor does not discharge it. Report to Adult Protective Services, 1-800-992-6978; child abuse and neglect goes to the Department of Child Services, 1-800-800-5556. Good-faith reporters have civil and criminal immunity and protection from retaliation; knowingly failing to report is a Class B misdemeanor. One currency note: APS moved to a statewide model with five regional teams on July 1, 2025, so older guidance routing reports to a county prosecutor’s office is out of date — the hotline number did not change.

Background checks, CPR and TB — the personnel-file cycles

460 IAC 6-10-5 requires a limited criminal history from the Indiana central repository, a criminal history check from each county the person has resided in during the preceding three years, and a report from the state nurse aide registry. Nine offense categories disqualify, and only theft carries a ten-year lookback — the other eight are permanent. Then come the cycles that quietly expire: criminal history updated at least every three years (460 IAC 6-15-2(b)(4)), CPR recertified every two years (6-15-2(b)(2)), and TB — a negative screening before service in waiver settings, but before duties and annually thereafter in Supervised Group Living (9-3-3(e)). First aid carries no stated renewal interval in rule; treat it as unspecified rather than assuming two years.

Know the gaps as well as the requirements. Indiana’s DD rules require no sex offender registry check (the rule requires that the criminal history show no conviction for a sex crime, which is not the same thing), no child protection index check, no adult protective services registry check, and no FBI fingerprint check for line staff — national fingerprint checks attach to owners and managing individuals in high-risk IHCP categories, which is an ownership screen. The Supervised Group Living standard at 460 IAC 9-3-2(c) is weaker still: a qualitative employment-practices test, a motor vehicle record, a criminal check and three references, with no registry check and no recheck cadence. An agency running both tracks should apply the stricter waiver standard across the board.

What is proposed, and not yet in effect

Several Indiana changes are moving at once, and none of them should drive your required-course list today. Indiana has proposed rules at 460 IAC 16 governing the direct support professional registry and training, with a comment period closing August 24, 2026 — they are proposed, not in effect. CIH and FS waiver amendments were submitted to CMS that, if approved, would take effect August 1, 2026; they are not approved. Case management moves to five statewide Case Management Organizations effective August 1, 2026, while the provider manual still describes six. And “Waiver Reset,” Indiana’s plan to replace its four BDS waivers with a new set beginning as early as 2027, has been announced but has changed nothing yet. Also worth correcting if you have heard otherwise: Indiana has not enacted a phase-out of Section 14(c) subminimum wage certificates, and the federal phase-out proposal was withdrawn in July 2025.

How TrainingHub fits — honestly

TrainingHub does not provide HCSP and does not replace it. HCSP is free, mandatory, and completed on the state’s platform, and the state says its curriculum meets the DSP training rule in 460 IAC 6. What the state platform does not do is carry your agency’s own obligations — and those are the ones a surveyor asks you to prove. DSPlife™ TrainingHub covers agency-specific policy training, individual-specific training logged before a staff member works with each person, the annual in-service in rights and abuse protection, incident reporting and medication administration under 460 IAC 6-16-3(b)(4), the Supervised Group Living 24 hours a year, and the expiry cycles that catch agencies out — Core A and Core B records, CPR at two years, criminal history at three, and TB cadence by setting. It logs completion, alerts you before anything lapses, and produces personnel-file evidence for a survey — including the trainer name and qualifications, duration, dates and signatures the rule asks for. If you are still standing your agency up, see our guide to becoming a BDS provider in Indiana — or the full compliance overview.

Frequently asked questions