If the child support office does not know where a parent lives or works, the office can gather information from the other parent and many other sources including:
State resources
Some information available from Minnesota government agencies includes:
- Birth records
- Drivers' licenses
- Employer reports
- Hunting and fishing licenses
- Occupational licenses
- Prisoner information
- Public assistance
- Student grants
- Unemployment compensation
- Vehicle registration
- Workers' compensation
Federal resources
The Federal Case Registry contains state child support case data and may be used to help locate parents across state lines. Data in the federal registry are matched daily against quarterly wage information and unemployment insurance records submitted by each state to the National Directory of New Hire Reporting.
Federal law requires all employers to report information about newly hired and rehired employees. Employers report all of their information to one state even if they have employees in multiple states. Each state reports the information to the National Directory of New Hire Reporting.
Parents' responsibilities
Parents have a role in location activities. Parents are responsible (change link when new page available) for reporting changes to the other parent, the court and the child support office within 10 days of a change of:
- Residential and mailing address
- Phone number
- Driver's license number
- Social Security number
- Name, address and phone number of the employer
Contact your county child support worker if you have changes to report. Parents must also comply with requests for information from the county child support office.
