California

Paternity Establishment/ Statewide Paternity Opportunity Program (POP) Imaging and Data Access

Description/Goal

The primary goal of this initiative was to establish a streamlined process for filing, electronically imaging and providing access to completed paternity declarations to address the heavy volume of more than 120,000 paternity declarations being filed annually in California. The initial effort was focused upon eliminating a backlog of more than 80,000 unprocessed paternity declarations that had accumulated at the state vital statistics agency so this responsibility could be permanently transferred to the State Child Support agency. Another goal of this project is to ensure all paternity declarations are available to local child support agencies, parents and courts within 24 hours of receipt at the vendor.

he long-term goal is to establish a reliable database of filed paternity declarations as a foundation for introducing an online network system for statewide providers of the voluntary paternity process. The initiative has operated October 1, 1998 - Present

A private vendor for data imaging and database management services is a key partner. A statewide network of all birthing hospitals, county family support agencies and, local vital statistics agencies participate in the project.

Results

• A backlog of 80,000 unprocessed paternity declarations was eliminated.
• Conversion of the state vital statistics agency file of paternity declarations was incorporated into a database with over 380,000 filed declarations as of October 1, 1999.
• Reduction of the time to image submitted paternity declarations into an accessible database from weeks to 24 hours.
• Enabled the transfer of direct control for administering file of paternity declarations from the state vital statistics agency to the state child support agency.
• Monthly management reports from database allow for the direct oversight and monitoring of a statewide network of more than 700 mandated providers of the voluntary paternity process.
• Comprehensive database of filed paternity declarations is now available to county child support agencies for immediate use in child support cases.

Location

This is a statewide project with all mandated paternity providers submitting completed paternity declarations to a central location.

Funding

The initial period of this initiative (October 1, 1998 through September 30, 1999) was funded by a Federal Child Support Special Improvement Project (SIP) Grant. The ongoing costs of the project are funded by the regular federal-state match at 93 cents per declaration.

Replication Advice

States with a high volume of filed paternity declarations and a large number of participating hospitals and public agencies would be most likely to benefit from this project. Also, state agencies considering assuming responsibility from their vital statistics agencies for processing paternity declarations could benefit from this project.