WHAT IS PAPA? Parenting and Paternity Awareness

1. WHAT IS PAPA? Parenting and Paternity Awareness When a child’s parents have separated, divorced, or never married, the Office of the Attorney General provides a wide range of child support services, including: Locating a child’s absent parent Collecting and distributing child support and medical support payments Identifying the child’s legal father, establishing paternity Establishing and modifying court orders for child support and medical support payment Taking enforcement actions against absent parents who fail to pay support

2. TEXAS LAW RECOGNIZES 4 TYPES OF FATHERS:

3. ESTABLISHING PATERNITY • When a child is born, the mother’s name automatically goes on the birth certificate. • There is no doubt who the mother is! But there may be questions about the father. • If the parents are married, the husband’s name will be placed on the birth certificate, unless he denies that he is the baby’s biological father.

4. 3 Ways to Establish Paternity for Unmarried Couples • Sign an AOP at the hospital • Agreed Order • Paternity Petition

5. What is an AOP? Acknowledgment of Paternity • Form signed by unmarried couples at the hospital who want to establish paternity. • This is the simplest way to establish paternity. • The biological father becomes the legal father.

6. What is an Agreed Order? • If an AOP is not signed at the hospital, the parents can go to the Child Support Office together and sign an Agreed Order establishing paternity and set a child support amount. • This is for parents who both want to establish legal fatherhood.

7. What is a Paternity Petition? • A Paternity Petition can be filed in court, asking that an alleged father be named the legal father. • This is for parents who are NOT in agreement. • The court rules on the petition, establishing or denying paternity based on evidence presented in court.

8. Establishing Paternity • Once paternity has been established, a court may decide issues of: • custody, • Visitation • the payment of child support • medical support in the event that the parents separate.

9. Benefits of Establishing Paternity • When you establish paternity for a child born to unmarried parents, you are giving that child the benefits of having a legal father, which he or she would not otherwise have. • Raising a child is a long-term commitment, lasting 18 years at least. • The best way to secure the future is to establish a legal relationship between the father and the child.

10. Benefits of Establishing Paternity for the Father • Parental Rights • If the parents separate, he would have the right to seek custody and child support from the mother. • If he does not have custody, he can seek visitation rights, and will have the right to know the child’s whereabouts. • He will have legal standing when decisions are made about the child. • For the child, there is the security of having two responsible caregivers, two adults contributing financial support, medical care, and attention. • Medical records on the father’s side also may be important at some time in the child’s life.