diff --git a/doc/release-notes/10869-fix-npe-using-cvoc.md b/doc/release-notes/10869-fix-npe-using-cvoc.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..53214d3789d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/release-notes/10869-fix-npe-using-cvoc.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+This release fixes a bug in the external controlled vocabulary mechanism (introduced in v6.3) that could cause indexing to fail when a script is configured for one child field and no other child fields were managed.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/search/IndexServiceBean.java b/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/search/IndexServiceBean.java
index fe8f1030f82..a8cf9ed519b 100644
--- a/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/search/IndexServiceBean.java
+++ b/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/search/IndexServiceBean.java
@@ -1128,7 +1128,7 @@ public SolrInputDocuments toSolrDocs(IndexableDataset indexableDataset, Set<Long
                                 if(dsfType.getParentDatasetFieldType()!=null) {
                                     List<DatasetField> childDatasetFields = dsf.getParentDatasetFieldCompoundValue().getChildDatasetFields();
                                     for (DatasetField df : childDatasetFields) {
-                                        if(cvocManagedFieldMap.get(dsfType.getId()).contains(df.getDatasetFieldType().getName())) {
+                                        if(cvocManagedFieldMap.containsKey(dsfType.getId()) && cvocManagedFieldMap.get(dsfType.getId()).contains(df.getDatasetFieldType().getName())) {
                                             String solrManagedFieldSearchable = df.getDatasetFieldType().getSolrField().getNameSearchable();
                                             // Try to get string values from externalvocabularyvalue but for a managed fields of the CVOCConf
                                             Set<String> stringsForManagedField = datasetFieldService.getIndexableStringsByTermUri(val, cvocMap.get(dsfType.getId()), df.getDatasetFieldType().getName());