My son's father and I are no longer together, but he is not on the birth certificate. One of the major reason's why he isn't on the certificate is because our son has down syndrome and with me being the only one on the certificate allows our son to get more therapy lessons and other programs that will help him through the state. I guess my question is how do I figure out how much he should pay with out going through the court system.

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Originally Posted by LaurelRodin

My son's father and I are no longer together, but he is not on the birth certificate. One of the major reason's why he isn't on the certificate is because our son has down syndrome and with me being the only one on the certificate allows our son to get more therapy lessons and other programs that will help him through the state. I guess my question is how do i figure out how much he should pay with out going through the court system.

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Having only one parent listed on the birth certificate does not give the child more readily access to state assistance; assistance is based on your household income. You stated that the two of you are no longer together, which means his income shouldn't be part of your household... unless you still live together.

You cannot get child support from him unless he has been legally established as the biological father through a court-ordered DNA test.

If he pays you without a court order, there is nothing to stop him from one day deciding that he doesn't want to pay support anymore and just stop sending you a check.

You need to go though the court system, he is not required to pay a penny if you don't.

Here in GA he would be paying, if this was his only child, about 15 percent of his gross pay, plus part of any unpaid medical bill.

But if you are getting state funds, part of this would be you telling them who the father is, so they can go after him, are you not informing them of who the father is?

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Originally Posted by this8384

You cannot get child support from him unless he has been legally established as the biological father through a court-ordered DNA test.

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There are other ways to establish paternity-for example: if he is willing he can sign an Acknowledgment of Paternity.
After that you may ask your local DCSE to provide you assistance in establishing support order.
The court system is not always necessary for paternity establishment.

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Originally Posted by GV70

There are other ways to establish paternity-for example: if he is willing he can sign an Acknowledgment of Paternity.
After that you may ask your local DCSE to provide you assistance in establishing support order.
The court system is not always necessary for paternity establishment.

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You're right. But if the kid's on state assistance and no support has been ordered, then the father never acknowledged paternity.

Seeing as they think they're going to do this without the courts and not have a problem with it, I don't think they're going to bother with the form :)