To seek child support, we first need to know who the child’s legal parents are.

We call the process that leads to that legal determination “establishing parentage.” When the process focuses on a father, it can also be called “establishing paternity.”

Legal parentage benefits children by giving them a right to both parent’s health insurance and the right to inherit property. It may also make them eligible for benefits from agencies such as the Social Security Administration or Veterans Affairs.

The fact that someone’s name is on a birth certificate does not, by itself, legally establish parentage.

Parents who were married when they had a child establish parentage automatically. Legal parentage can still be changed in these cases, but it requires a court order.

Parents who were not married when they had a child can establish legal parentage in two general ways:

• Signing a Voluntary Declaration of Parentage
• Asking the court to determine the child’s parentage

If you need to establish parentage, contact us for help. You can open a case just to establish parentage.

Depending on your situation, we might order genetic testing. Genetic testing is normally free when working through our program.

California’s Parentage Opportunity Program (POP) is a free program that helps parent establish parentage by signing and filing the Voluntary Declaration of Parentage.

To participate in POP, visit their website, email askpop@dcss.ca.gov, or contact us today.

The Voluntary Declaration of Parentage is a form that unmarried parents are expected to sign when the child is born. But the form can be signed at any point in the child’s life.

Once completed correctly and signed by both parents, the Voluntary Declaration of Parentage has the same effect as a judgement from a court.

If you sign a Voluntary Declaration of Parentage after leaving the hospital, you will need to add the other parent’s information to the birth certificate as a separate process.

You should not sign a Voluntary Declaration of Parentage if you have been named as a child’s parents but doubt, even slightly, that this is true. The Voluntary Declaration of Parentage is very hard to take back if more than 60 days have passed since you signed it. Instead, you should consider genetic testing.

Like other local child support programs, we can arrange for free genetic testing to establish parentage. The court may also order genetic testing as part of its parentage process.

Genetic testing is a simple, painless process. All that happens is a technician brushes a cotton swab inside of the mouth of each person being tested.