Divorce in Minnesota With Children: What Changes When You Agree

By the FormsPal Editorial Team · Updated November 1, 2026 · 13 min read

Having kids doesn't move you off the agreed, uncontested track in Minnesota. It doesn't open a second court file either. If you and your spouse already know how you'll handle custody, parenting time, and support, you still file one dissolution case in your county's district court.

Two things do change. Children rule out the fastest of Minnesota's three tracks, and the packet carries more paperwork. This guide walks through what a with-children case actually requires, in Minnesota's own terms, so you know what you're signing before you sign it.

Why custody and support live inside your dissolution case

Minnesota's dissolution law gives a judge one case to work with when a couple has minor children together. Custody, parenting time, and child support get settled in the same proceeding that ends the marriage. They are not a separate matter filed somewhere else. There's no custody court and no second docket number. Whatever you and your spouse agree to on those three questions gets written into your paperwork. Once a judge signs off, it becomes the order that governs your family going forward.

That single-case design also shapes the paperwork. On the joint track, the Joint Petition for Marriage Dissolution With Children (DIV1702) is a combined petition-and-decree document. The same pages that ask the court to dissolve the marriage also carry your custody and parenting time terms and your support agreement.

On the standard track, a Petition for Divorce with Children (DIV802) opens the case. A separate decree carries the final terms once the case is ready to close. Either way, custody and support aren't an add-on. They're built into the same document set as the divorce itself.

Joint petition or standard petition: your two paths

Minnesota gives agreeing couples with children a real shortcut. If you and your spouse are both ready to co-sign, the Joint Petition for Marriage Dissolution With Children (DIV1702) lets you file together as co-petitioners. There's no summons, no process server, and no formal service step. You are both already parties to the case the moment you file it. Minnesota uses the same mechanism for its no-children joint track (DIV302), just with custody, parenting time, and support terms built in.

If one of you needs to file first instead, the standard track starts with a Petition for Divorce with Children (DIV802). That single-petitioner document opens the case. A Combined Summons (DIV803) is served with it. Besides notifying your spouse of the case, the summons does three jobs:

• It tells your spouse to serve an Answer and a Financial Affidavit within 30 days.
• It carries the required notice on temporary restraining provisions.
• It carries the required notice on Minnesota's parent education program.

From there the case resolves one of two ways. If your spouse cooperates and signs on, you file a Stipulated Findings, Order, and Judgment and Decree (DIV806) together. If your spouse does not respond, the case can proceed by default. A default takes four filings from you:

• Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, Order for Judgment and Judgment and Decree (DIV807)
• Affidavit of Default (DIV815)
• Affidavit of Non Military Status (DIV808)
• Default Scheduling Request (DIV1202)

After that, you attend a default hearing before the judge signs the decree.

One track is off the table no matter how simple your case is: the summary dissolution (DIV202). That shortest lane is open only to couples who meet every one of these conditions:

• no living minor children of the marriage and no current pregnancy
• a marriage of fewer than eight years
• no real estate
• no more than $8,000 in unpaid marital debt, apart from car loans
• no more than $25,000 in marital assets
• no more than $25,000 in nonmarital assets for either spouse
• no domestic abuse by either spouse against the other

Having kids in the picture takes it off the menu entirely. So a with-children case is always either the joint or the standard track above.

Custody and parenting time, written into the petition

The joint and standard petitions each cover custody and parenting time in the same document that handles the rest of your dissolution, alongside child support. For an agreed couple, that means writing down what you have already worked out. Who has custody? What parenting time schedule will the two of you follow? Those answers go in the joint petition-and-decree document on the joint track, or in the stipulated judgment and decree on the standard track.

We haven't independently verified the exact layout of that section against the form's own printed text. So read your specific petition closely before you sign, rather than assuming you already know its structure.

As a general practice, spell out actual days, times, and handoff details in your parenting time schedule rather than leaving it general. Specific terms are easier for both of you to follow once the case closes. They also give the court a clear record of exactly what you've agreed to. That's more to spell out up front, but the terms you land on will fit your actual routine rather than a generic placeholder.

Child support and the Financial Affidavit

On the standard track, you must serve and file your Financial Affidavit (FAM102, with instructions on FAM101) with the Summons and Petition. Your spouse must fill one out too and either serve it with an Answer or file it with your signed stipulation.

Filing jointly through the with-children petition (DIV1702) does not use FAM102. You still need income proof, filed behind the Form 11.2 Cover Sheet for Non-Public Documents. That means proof such as pay stubs for the most recent three months and your most recent federal tax returns.

Under Minnesota law, child support can't be set without a financial affidavit, FAM102 or a substantially similar one. That holds even though the joint petition's statewide form list leaves FAM102 off. So ask your county's court administration whether it wants FAM102.

Either way, your Financial Affidavit, or the income questions in the joint petition, puts each parent's income on the record. Those numbers feed Minnesota's child support guidelines. The guidelines start from both parents' incomes rather than a number either of you simply names.

Related court rules separately require a Parenting/Financial Disclosure Statement (FAM108) when a motion asks for temporary financial relief while the case is pending. Child support and maintenance are examples of that relief. The rule is Minnesota General Rule of Practice 303.02(b). Under Rule 305.01, the same statement is also due at least 7 days before any pretrial conference. That disclosure is distinct from the Financial Affidavit itself and worth knowing about if your case takes a turn.

Even when you and your spouse agree on a support number, or agree to waive or reserve it, the court still checks it against the state's support guideline and needs proof of income to do that. The court makes written findings on support in every case, not just contested ones, and any deviation from the guideline number needs its own written findings for why. An agreed figure isn't automatically accepted.

If either of you receives or has applied for public assistance, the packet adds two forms:

• a Notice to Public Authority (DIV813), which tells the county child support office about the case
• an Affidavit of Service to Public Authority (DIV816), which proves the notice was delivered or mailed

Neither applies if public assistance isn't part of your situation. They're conditional pieces, not something every with-children case files. On the joint petition, the county attorney for the public authority signs off before the case is filed.

The hearing question: what "no notary" doesn't answer

Minnesota's with-children forms are signed under penalty of perjury, not before a notary. The standard-track Petition for Divorce with Children, the joint petition, the Financial Affidavit, and the service affidavits each close with a declaration under Minn. Stat. 358.116.

One notary step may come up in a with-children case. It applies if a child was born during the marriage from another relationship and a Recognition of Parentage or Spouse's Non-Parentage Statement was signed. You attach certified copies of that document to your petition. The Minnesota Department of Health form you use to request those copies must be signed in front of a notary. Either way, that's a separate question entirely from whether your case needs a hearing at all.

Minnesota law has the judge approve some uncontested judgments without a final hearing. For a case with no minor children, that happens in two situations. One is when the spouses have signed a written stipulation. The other is when the other spouse was served, never appeared, and at least 20 days have passed since the answer period ended.

With children in the case, the same statute's no-hearing path is written more narrowly. On its literal text, it requires both spouses to be represented by an attorney. Most FormsPal customers represent themselves. So on the standard Petition for Divorce with Children, expect a hearing, stipulated or by default alike, even when every form is signed and complete.

The joint petition with children (DIV1702) is the one route where the court's instructions frame it as a judicial decision. They say the judge decides whether a hearing is needed, and the form's no-hearing order is written for cases where both spouses have attorneys. And in any case, the court must schedule a hearing when the proposed decree does not appear to be in the children's best interests or is contrary to the interests of justice.

The rest of the children's paperwork

A couple of pieces round out the packet without changing your actual terms. A Certificate of Dissolution (DIV103S on the joint track, DIV103 on the standard track) is attached to your Judgment and Decree once it's granted. The court may direct you to prepare it (your packet includes it), and a judge signs it. For the complete document list mapped to your specific situation, see our Minnesota divorce papers guide.

If you and your spouse do not agree on custody or parenting time, Minnesota law requires the court to order you both to complete at least eight hours of parent education (Minn. Stat. 518.157). Unless the court orders otherwise, you start before any initial case management conference and within 30 days after the first filing, or as soon as classes are available. Children aged 6 to 17 may also have to attend.

If you do agree on custody and parenting time, the class isn't required by statute. But the state's own with-children instructions warn that classes may still be required before your case can finish, so check with your court administration. The fee is waived automatically if your filing fee is. Keep your certificate of completion once you're done.

One genuine oddity sits in the standard-track packet. A Felony Notification Affidavit (DIV810) shows up there, but it has nothing to do with custody. It applies when the spouse asking for a name change in the divorce has a felony conviction, and it only matters if that situation describes you. DIV810 isn't part of the joint petition packet. If you're on the joint petition and that situation applies to you, ask court administration for the Felon Name Change Instructions handout. Either way, most with-children cases never touch it.

When this isn't a simple agreed case

Everything above assumes you and your spouse are genuinely on the same page about your kids. Two situations change that, and both are worth being honest about rather than working around.

• You disagree on custody, parenting time, or support. If either of you wants a different arrangement than the other is proposing, your case is contested, and self-help paperwork isn't built for that. A family law attorney can protect your position in a way a document service can't.
• Safety concerns are part of the picture. If domestic abuse has occurred between the parents, Minnesota law presumes that joint legal or joint physical custody is not in the child's best interests. That reverses the usual presumption for joint legal custody. A case like that needs an attorney's judgment, not a template.

If neither applies and you're simply turning an agreement you've already reached into the paperwork the court requires, that's exactly what this guide, and our Minnesota online divorce service, are built for.

Timeline and cost

Children don't add a waiting period of their own, and a joint petition with children has no fixed wait. What does apply on the standard track is service-based:

• If your spouse is personally served, they have 30 days to answer.
• If your spouse signed a waiver of service, they have 60 days from the day you sent the request.

If they don't answer, you can file for a decree once that window closes and the required parent-education steps are met. The window closes 30 days after personal service, 60 days after the waiver request, or 51 days after the first publication date. A hearing follows.

Otherwise the pace depends on how complete your paperwork is, your court's own schedule, and the hearing question covered above. See our full Minnesota divorce timeline guide for the complete breakdown of every stage.

Cost follows the same shape as any agreed Minnesota divorce. The Judicial Branch's fee schedule sets a $390 statewide base filing fee, the same with or without children. Each county adds its own law library fee on top. So the real total runs $390 to $405 depending on the county, for example $402 in Hennepin and $405 in Ramsey and Dakota.

Preparing the paperwork is the other cost. Custody and support terms you've already agreed on don't require paid experts or a contested hearing to resolve. Our Minnesota divorce cost breakdown covers the filing fee, the fee waiver, and where an attorney-drafted case runs higher. The national divorce cost calculator has a Minnesota option built in if you'd rather see the numbers side by side.

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