2.5 Establishing Paternity/Search for Absent or Unknown Parent/Search for Relatives
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2.5 Diligent Inquiry for Absent or Unknown Parent and Establishing Paternity

(Revision. 8/1/21)

Authority:Authority:

AS 18.50.160 Birth Registration

AS 25.23.180(f) Relinquishment and Termination of Parent and Child Relationships

AS 25.27.165 Determination of Paternity in an Administrative Proceeding

AS 25.27.166 Disestablishment of Paternity

AS 47.10.020 Investigation and Petition

AS 47.10.030(b) Summons and Custody of Minor

AS 47.10.084 Legal Custody, Guardianship, and Residual Parental Rights and Responsibilities

AS 47.10.120 Support of Child

42 U.S.C. 671(a) State Plan for Foster Care and Adoption Assistance (Title IV-E)

45 CFR 1356.21(g) Foster Care Maintenance Payments Program Implementation Requirements

Alaska Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 4

Alaska Adoption Rule 10

Purpose:Purpose:

To ensure the timely location, establishment, and engagement of parents to enable them to participate in case planning.

Background Information:Background Information:

Federal Law:

  1. States are required to provide for development of a case plan for each child who is placed out-of-home and receiving IV-E foster care maintenance payments, and the case plan must be developed jointly with the child’s parent(s) or guardian.

  2. States are required to make reasonable efforts to preserve and reunify families:

    1. prior to the placement of a child in foster care, to prevent or eliminate the need for removing the child from the child's home; and

    2. to make it possible for a child to safely return to the child's home.

State Law:

  1. When a petition for a finding that a child is a child in need of aid is filed, the child’s parent(s) must be notified of the proceedings.

  2. Before a petition for termination of parental rights is heard, notice of the hearing on the petition and opportunity to be heard shall be given the parents of the child.

  3. When there has been transfer of legal custody or appointment of a guardian and parental rights have not been terminated by court decree, the parents shall have residual rights and responsibilities. These residual rights and responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the right and responsibility of reasonable visitation, consent to adoption, consent to marriage, consent to military enlistment, consent to major medical treatment except in cases of emergency or cases falling under AS 25.20.025 , and the responsibility for support, except if by court order any residual right and responsibility has been delegated to a guardian under AS 47.10.084(b).

  4. When a child in need of aid is committed under this chapter, the court or the child support services agency created in AS 25.27.010 shall, after giving the parent a reasonable opportunity to be heard, require that the parent pay to the department a sum to cover in full or in part the maintenance and care of the child in a manner that the court or the child support services agency directs.

  5. Alaska Court Rules require diligent inquiry into the whereabouts of an Absent Parent who needs to be notified of court proceedings for termination of their parental. The results of the diligent inquiry may be used to support notice by publication in a newspaper, if ordered by the court. If the identity of the parent is unknown, the court may waive the notice.

Policy:

  1. It is in the best interest of each child in the custody of the department for the child’s parent(s) to participate in support of and planning for the child. If a parent’s whereabouts are unknown, the Protective Services (PS) Specialist will attempt to locate the parent and establish paternity if necessary.

    1. Attempts to locate parents will include requesting assistance from the Child Support Services Division (CSSD), who may access contact information available through:

      1. Division of Motor Vehicles,

      2. Employment Security Division,

      3. Department of Labor (wage records),

      4. Department of Corrections,

      5. Department of Revenue (PFD),

      6. Division of Public Assistance, and the

      7. Accurint database.

        1. In addition, CSSD uses the website Vinelink.com (for incarcerated people), local tax records online, the Social Security Death Index, and assorted phone number websites.

    2. Child Support Services Division (CSSD) is able to share the following information with OCS regarding a custodial or noncustodial parent or a Putative Father:

      1. Person’s Name/ Mailing Address;

      2. Social Security Number;

      3. Employer’s Name/ Address;

      4. Federal Employer Identification Number;

      5. Wages, income, and benefits of employment, including healthcare coverage; and

      6. Type, status, location, and amount of any assets or debts owed by or to any such individual.

  2. Initial searches to locate fathers may provide results that need to be examined closer. There may be times where a documented father is not the child’s actual biological father. This can occur if a father is listed on the birth certificate, they are presumed to be the father. However, the child’s paternity may be in question if:

    1. No father is named on the birth certificate or in CSSD records; or

    2. The mother alleges that someone other than the individual named on the birth certificate is the child’s father; or

    3. The individual named denies paternity; or

    4. Someone other than the individual named claims paternity; or

    5. Paternity was established through a default order, i.e.,

      1. Legally married husband is listed as the father even though he may not be the bio father.

      2. CSSD does genetic testing

      3. CSSD, the “father,” did not respond to their notices and is therefore defaulted as the father.

  3. Paternity testing is the preferred way to establish paternity for children in OCS out-of-home placement.

  4. A court order establishing or disestablishing a father should occur in order to update the child’s birth certificate and to ensure child support is being collected accurately.