IM-00-12, Genetic Testing Laboratories

INFORMATION MEMORANDUM OCSE-IM-00-12

DATE: November 20, 2000

SUPERSEDES: DCL-1990-21, DCL-1993-04, DCL-1997-25, DCL-1999-68

TO: State Agencies Administering Child Support Enforcement Plans Under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act and Other Interested Individuals

SUBJECT: Genetic Testing Laboratories

CONTENT: The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 mandates that States have and use procedures by which genetic test results can be admitted as evidence of paternity without the need for additional foundation testimony or other proof of accuracy. For States to take advantage of this procedure in contested cases, the test must be of a type generally acknowledged as reliable by an approved accreditation body and be performed by an accredited laboratory.

State Child Support Agencies are required to contract with genetic testing laboratories to perform paternity tests to resolve disputed paternity of children born to unmarried parents. The laboratory must perform, at reasonable costs, tests that are legally and medically acceptable to identifying or excluding an alleged father.

In support of this effort, the Office of Child Support Enforcement has compiled the First, Second, and Third Edition of "Directory of Genetic Testing Laboratories" which were disseminated to States in 1989, 1991 and 1993. Attached is the Fourth Edition of the Directory which reflects data collected since the summer of 1999.

This Directory will help States identify laboratories which perform legally and medically acceptable genetic tests at a reasonable costs.

ATTACHMENT: Directory of Genetic Testing Laboratories, Fourth Edition (http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/pubs/directories/genetic-testing/)

INQUIRIES TO: ACF HUB Directors and Regional Administrators

David Gray Ross
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement