1. Parenting and Paternity Awareness
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:
Alleged
The man not married to the mother, but who is identified as the biological father
Biological
the man whose sperm brings the baby into being
LEGAL
The man whose name appears on the birth certificate and who is the child’s father in the eyes of the law, with all the rights and responsibilities of parenthood
Presumed
Husband of the baby’s mother
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. Acknowledgment of Paternity
What is an AOP?
Acknowledgment of Paternity
Form signed by unmarried couples at the hospital who want to establish paternity.
An AOP 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, and 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.