INCARCERATION AND BEYOND (4C)

Legal Rights and Responsibilities

Legal Responsibilities of Fatherhood

In this session, the facilitator can work as a team with a representative of the child support enforcement office. The facilitator begins by reviewing paternity issues with participants. Then the guest speaker from the Office of Support Enforcement or facilitator explains how support enforcement works, and how the state collects money from non-custodial parents. The facilitator or guest speaker will also discuss the reasons and procedures for establishing paternity.

Some states currently have programs to garnish the wages of non custodial parents, taking the money directly from the employer to reimburse the state for public assistance to the custodial parent. "Custodial" and "Non custodial" in the context refer to the parent who has custody of the child and not that the father is in custody in a correctional institution.

1. Begin by introducing the topic of paternity. Ask students "Do any of you know what paternity is?"

Explain that the material is being given to them because of the high rate of teen pregnancy and parenthood in the community. They, or a friend, or a family member could be affected by the laws about paternity.

2. Cover the ways in which paternity is established in the eyes of the law:
 
a:  The father voluntarily signs a paternity affidavit at the hospital when the baby is born.

b:  The father signs an affidavit at a later date.

c:  The mother names the father and the court requires the mother, child, and alleged father to have blood tests to see if paternity can be established by DNA testing.

3. Review reasons why a father should establish paternity. (Participants familiar with the child support enforcement system may believe that if they do not voluntarily establish paternity, they cannot be made to pay child support.)

a:  It benefits a child psychologically.

b:  It gives the father the rights to make important decisions about the child's life, such as permission for surgery.

c:  If the mother should become ill, move out of state, or want to give the child up for adoption, it protects the father's rights.

INCARCERATION AND BEYOND

Legal Rights and Responsibilities

Fatherhood and Choices

This segment deals with pregnancies that end in adoption and in the father's potential loss of contact with the child when the mother marries another man and moves out of state.

The teacher is encouraged to invite a adoption counselor to assist in teaching.

Talk about the variety of child custody arrangements.

Begin session with the following statement "Some of you have had children or are expecting children. Just like the mothers, fathers need to know about all of the custody options that are available, and what their rights and responsibilities are under each option. While you may not have intended to have a baby, once it is born there are many choices for the father to make."

Review several custody options:

a. If the mother wants to raise the child herself, the father has the right to be emotionally and financially involved as a father. If the mother applies for public assistance or goes to the courts, the father may be tested to establish paternity and then held responsible for child support.

Voluntary involvement with the child and the mother is the best arrangement for the child, although it is difficult for a father attending school and working. This arrangement can work if one or both of the parents' families help out. The father can begin this process by signing papers - called a paternity affidavit - at the hospital after the child is born, acknowledging that he is the father.

If the father does not acknowledge paternity, and does not voluntarily support the child, the mother can apply for public assistance or go to court to force him to acknowledge paternity. He will be tested and then required by the state public assistance system or courts to pay a monthly amount toward child support. These payments will be required until the child is an adult. He will have rights as a father if he wishes to be emotionally involved with the child.

If the mother does not want to raise the child herself, the father has two or three options.

First, he has the right to raise the child himself. The mother will continue to have parental rights, and under some circumstances may have to pay child support. This arrangement is time-consuming and expensive, and may be difficult for a teen father unless he has help from his family.

If the mother chooses to give the child up for adoption, he may have to give up his rights as a father. If the child is adopted informally by friends or family, he can still be legally recognized as the father. If the adoptive parents agree, or if he goes to court, he can continue to be involved with the child. However, if the mother wants the child to be formally adopted, he will be asked to sign a form terminating his rights as a father. In many states, unless the father is prepared to raise the child himself, the mother can go to court to have his rights terminated without his consent.

Present some statistics on teen parenting in the community. What percentage of babies are raised by fathers? By mothers? By both parents? What percentage of babies born to young mothers are adopted?

Talk about the history of adoption in the community. While adoption was originally a process to help childless couples, increasingly it is a process for the good of the child and for parents who are not ready to raise a baby. (The counselor should be alert for negative feelings or fears the participants may have about adoption, including the adoption of babies by families of other ethnic backgrounds.)

Tell participants about the practice of open, as opposed to closed adoption. Until ten or twenty years ago, most adoptions were closed. That meant that the mother never knew what happened to her child. Today, that has changed radically. In open adoption, the mother and the father, if he wishes, can be involved in choosing the family that will raise their child. In some cases, the birth parents even keep up a correspondence with that adoptive family and find out how the baby grows up.

Close by pointing out that it is in a baby's best interest to be freed for adoption soon after birth, so that it can bond to the adoptive parents. But for birth parents, giving up a baby can be very emotionally difficult. The decision to have a baby adopted is an extremely difficult one for a mother and a father. It is a challenge for a father to think about what will be best, not for him, but for his child.

INCARCERATION AND BEYOND

Legal Rights and Responsibilities

Handout: Child Abuse or Neglect Reporting Procedure

California Penal Code Section 11166(a) provides that:

. . . Any child care custodian, medical practitioner, nonmedical practitioner, or employee of a child protective agency who has knowledge of or observes a child in his or her professional capacity or within the scope of his or her employment whom he or she reasonably suspects has been the victim of child abuse shall report the known or suspected instance of child abuse to a child protective agency immediately or as soon as practically possible by telephone and shall prepare and send a written report thereof within 36 hours of receiving the information concerning the incident. For the purposes of this article, reasonable suspicion means that it is objectively reasonable for a person to entertain such a suspicion based upon facts that could cause a reasonable person in a like position, drawing when appropriate on his or her training and experience, to suspect child abuse.

In addition, Penal Code Section 11167 provides that:

(a) A telephone report of a known or suspected instance of child abuse shall include the name of the person making the report, the name of the child, the present location of the child, the nature and extent of the injury, and any other information, including information that led such person to suspect child abuse, requested by the child protective agency.

(b) Information relevant to the incident of child abuse may also be given to an investigator from a child protective agency who is investigating the known or suspected case of child abuse.

(c) The identity of all persons who report under this article shall be confidential and disclosed only between child protective agencies, or to counsel representing a child protective agency, or to the district attorney in a criminal prosecution or in an action initiated under Section 602 of the Welfare and Institutions Code arising from alleged child abuse, or to counsel appointed pursuant to Section 318 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, or to the county counsel or district attorney in an action initiated under Section 232 of the Civil Code or Section 300 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, or when those persons waive confidentiality, or by court order.

Liability of the Reporting Person

Penal Code Section 11172 (b) states that:

Any person who fails to report an instance of child abuse which he or she knows to exist or reasonably should know to exist, as required by this article, is guilty of a misdemeanor and is punishable by confinement in the county jail for a term not to exceed six months or by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500) or by both. (Italics added.).

Failure to report suspected child abuse may result in civil liability as well. A person required to report suspected abuse who fails to do so may be held liable in civil damages for any subsequent injury to the child (Landeros v. Flood [1976] 17 Cal. 3d 399).

Immunity of the Reporting Person

Penal Code Section 11172(a) states that:

No child care custodian, medical practitioner, nonmedical practitioner, or employee of a child protective agency who reports a known or suspected instance of child abuse shall be civilly or criminally liable for any report required or authorized by this article. Any other person reporting a known or suspected instance of child abuse shall not incur civil or criminal liability as a result of any report authorized by this article unless it can be proven that a false report was made and the person knew that the report was false....