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Child Support – Establishing Paternity

Often, paternity or parentage must be established before an order for support can be established.

You can establish parentage for your child by signing a Recognition of Parentage form and filing it with the Office of the State Registrar or by going through a legal action in court. When a child is born to an unmarried mother, you can establish parentage if:

• both parents agree that the man is the biological father and want him to be the legal father of the child, and they sign the Recognition of Parentage; or

• either or both parents ask the court to enter an order finding that the man is the legal father of the child; or

• the parents marry after the child is born and both parents sign an affidavit and file it with the Office of the State Registrar.

If any of these happens, parentage is established if no other documents filed earlier name another man as the child’s legal father.

Parentage must be established before a father’s name can be placed on a child’s birth record. For more information, please view the Power of Two video before signing the Recognition of Parentage form.

Information on establishing parentage includes:

• Becoming a Legal Father

• The Recognition of Parentage (ROP)

• Advantages for fathers who sign the Recognition of Parentage

• Advantages for mothers who sign the Recognition of Parentage

• Disadvantages of signing the Recognition of Parentage

• Undoing a Recognition of Parentage

• Court orders to establish parentage

• When a mother is married to someone other than the biological father

• Husband’s Non-Paternity Statement

• Undoing a Husband’s Non-Paternity Statement

• Determining the biological father

• Genetic testing

• Your rights as a parent

• Naming your child

• Living arrangements for your child

• Parenting time

• Decisions about how your child is raised

• What to do if your child may be adopted

• Financial responsibilities for your child

The brochure, Being a Legal Father: parentage information for mothers and fathers (DHS-3159a) outlines and answers questions about establishing paternity for unmarried parents.

Paternity Establishment Administrators

Sign up for the Paternity Establishment Administrator’s mailing list. The list provides information, updates, and timely communication to staff at birth hospitals statewide that are required to provide unmarried parents the opportunity to establish paternity at the time of their child's birth. Others who are interested in paternity establishment information may also sign up.

Information will include alerts to changes in forms and parent material, training opportunities, and procedures and policies.

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