Parents' roles and responsibilities

Both parents are responsible for contributing financially to the care of their child. If you are a parent and you do not live with the other parent of your child, you may be asked to pay support. Child support can include:

• Basic support
• Medical support
• Child care support
• Past support for up to two years

Child support orders usually continue until the child is at least 18 or graduates from high school.

The more you know about Minnesota's child support program, the better you will be able to exercise your rights and responsibilities under the law. This will help you be more successful in providing support for your children.

Minnesota's child support program helps:

• Parents focus on co-parenting
• Parents establish a financial partnership in support of their children
• Families work toward becoming or remaining self-sufficient through improved child support collections
• Children receive the support they deserve.

As you work with your county child support office, remember that:

• The child support office represents the court order. It does not represent either parent.
• Not all solutions to child support problems are within your control.
• The legal rights of all parties must be protected, and sometimes an action on a case may seem unfair.

Cooperating with the child support office is important. By taking an active role in your case, you improve your chances of successful support establishment and collection. If you apply for services and do not cooperate and do not receive public assistance, the child support office may close your case.

Help the child support office by reporting changes that affect your case in a timely manner and providing information when requested.

Contact your county child support office if:

• You move
• You get a new phone number
• You lose your job
• You get a new job
• Your child has different living arrangements
• Your child graduates from high school
• Your need for child care ends or changes
• You have new information that might help locate the other parent
• You apply for public assistance
• You are involved in other court actions regarding support payments and there was no child support office involved
• You lose medical or dental insurance for a child on the case
• You change health care providers and have updated insurance for a child on the case
• You become disabled or are unable to work
• You become incarcerated
• You receive support payments directly from the other parent.

The child support office expects parents to participate in their case. If you receive public assistance, know that:

• If the child lives with you and you receive public assistance, the other parent may be ordered to pay child support.
• If parentage needs to be established or the other parent needs to be located, you must cooperate with the child support office by providing complete and correct information.
• If you do not cooperate with the child support office's action to establish parentage or child support, your public assistance benefits may be reduced and your coverage under MinnesotaCare or Medical Assistance may end, unless you claim good cause.

Often parents decide their child's name together. If the parents aren't married to each other, the mother has the right to choose her child's name. The child's last name can be any name, including the last name of the mother, father or both. The name chosen for your child in the hospital will be put on your child's birth record.

If you are filing a Recognition of Parentage form, you have an opportunity to change your child's last name on the birth record. On the Recognition of Parentage form, check the box in the child's information section and fill in the new last name. When the Office of Vital Records files the Recognition of Parentage, they will add the father's name and change your child's last name on the birth record .

You cannot use the Recognition of Parentage to change your child's first or middle names. Also, if parentage is already established, you cannot use the Recognition of Parentage to change your child's last name. You will need to contact the Office of Vital Records to find out how to change your child's name.

If a child's parents are not married when the child is born, the law automatically gives the mother both physical and legal custody. Parents can make voluntary arrangements. The child can live with the father if both parents agree.

A legal father has the right to ask the court to give him physical and legal custody of his child. The court will look at what is best for the child before deciding custody. The Recognition of Parentage does not give the father custody.

If the parents cannot agree on parenting time (visitation), both parents have the right to ask the court to set parenting time. The Recognition of Parentage does not give the father parenting time or rights to visit a child.

Parents may make decisions together about how their child is raised. Legal custody gives a parent the right to make decisions about how a child is raised. If you and the other parent cannot agree on these decisions, either of you can ask the court to decide. These decisions could be about your child's school, medical care or religion.

Joint legal custody gives both of you access to your child's school and medical records and allows both of you to be told about an accident or serious illness of your child.

You can sign the Recognition of Parentage even if you think your child may be adopted. As a legal father, you would then be notified of adoption proceedings. Having both parents participate in the adoption of their child is best for the child.

If you have not established parentage and you think that you are the child's biological father, you can register with the Minnesota's Fathers' Adoption Registry. The registry provides a way for you to be notified if a petition to adopt the child is ever filed in Minnesota. You can register before the child's birth, but no later than 30 days after the birth. Your registration will identify you as an interested father but not a legal father. For more information, contact:

Fathers' Adoption Registry
Minnesota Department of Health
P. O. Box 64882
St. Paul, MN 55164-0882
888-345-1726