Establishing Paternity

Being recognized as a parent in Iowa comes with both rights and responsibilities. In some cases, parents do not need to take any special steps to be recognized as parents under the law.

For example, if a person is married and gives birth to a child, the law assumes the person and the spouse are the parents of the child. While the language you will see used in the Iowa Code is “paternity” and “father and mother,” this is true for both same sex and opposite sex married couples. See Gartner v. Iowa Department of Public Health, 830 N.W.2d 335 (Iowa 2013).

In some cases, however, the people that the law would normally assign as “parents” are not the parents of the child. In these cases, extra steps need to be taken for the law to recognize a person as a parent.

For example, Emily is married to Jacob. Jacob and Emily broke up 11 months ago but have not started divorce proceedings. Emily is pregnant and will soon give birth to Tyler’s baby. If no other steps are taken, Emily and Jacob will be listed as the baby’s parents on the birth certificate, even though Jacob is not the baby’s father.

Fortunately, there are ways to avoid this outcome and make sure the right people are recognized as parents on a child’s birth certificate.

Iowa laws dealing with paternity include:

Why establish that you are a child’s parent?

Without being legally recognized as the parent of a child, you do not have rights to make decisions about or visit your child.

Being a legal parent comes with certain rights and obligations. These could include:

Legal Custody. According to the Iowa Code, the rights and responsibilities of legal custody “include but are not limited to decisionmaking affecting the child’s legal status, medical care, education, extracurricular activities, and religious instruction.” See our section on Custody and Visitation for more information.

Physical Care. According to the Iowa Code, physical care “means the right and responsibility to maintain a home for the minor child and provide for the routine care of the child.” See our section on Custody and Visitation for more information.

Child Support. Child support is money paid by one parent to another to help cover the expenses related to the child’s care. See our section on Child Support for more information.

Visitation. Visitation often occurs where one parent has sole physical custody of the child, but the court orders a certain amount of time where the parent with custody must allow you to spend time with your child. Visitation can be supervised or unsupervised, depending on what the judge orders.

How do you establish that you are a child’s parent, if the law does not assume you are?

Sometimes the assumptions that the law makes about the identity of a child’s parents are incorrect. If you are in situation where the law does not automatically recognize you as the parent of a child, even though you are, you still have options to establish that you are the child’s parent.

If you are the parent of the child and you either (1) gave birth to the child, or (2) are married to the person who gave birth to the child or were married to the person who gave birth to the child at the time the child was conceived (or anytime between conception and birth), Iowa Law assumes you are the child’s parent.

If you are not married to the person who gave birth to the child, but you both agree you are the child’s parent:

• File a Voluntary Paternity Affidavit. This form can be completed at the hospital, your county record office, or the local child support office. In this situation, you are what the Iowa Code calls a “putative father.”
  • Make sure you fill out the form completely and correctly. The Voluntary Paternity Affidavit Program has a helpful list of common mistakes people make when filling out the form.
    • For more information, visit the Voluntary Paternity Affidavit Program website.
    • If the mother was married during this time frame, you must also attach a certified copy of a final court order, signed by the judge and filed with the clerk of court, where the court ruled that the mother’s spouse/former is not the child’s father.

    If you were not married, or where the father of the child was not your spouse, and the father will not voluntarily acknowledge paternity, you can:

    • Contact the Iowa Child Support Recovery Unit for more information on enrolling in services, which include help establishing paternity.
      • The Child Support Recovery Unit can establish paternity “administratively.” A page with more details on this process, and how to object if you receive notice and do not believe you are the father, is available here.
      • If administratively establishing paternity is not an option in a case, they can use the judicial process to establish paternity.

      If you believe you are the father of a child, and the mother does not agree, you can file an action asking the court to recognize you as the child’s father. For more information, see Iowa Legal Aid’s article Fathers’ Rights in Unmarried Situations.