Did you know unwed men must establish paternity to be recognized as child’s legal father? ‘Be there’ one dad

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Clayton Stanberry remembers vividly the first time he held his daughter. It was in a prison visitation room, but that couldn’t temper the joy he felt hearing her coos, feeding her for the first time and feeling her growing belly. He’d always wanted to be a dad and had just received the results of a genetic test confirming the news. That test, he said, not only gave him peace of mind, but officially made him a dad in the eyes of the law. Ohio does not automatically recognize the fathers of children born out of wedlock, so dads must take an extra step to establish their paternity. The confirmation unlocks a child’s rights to certain benefits, like the dad’s insurance, social security or military benefits. And it secures the dad’s rights to equal parenting, including visitation, custody and being included in important decisions about the child’s education or medical care. For Stanberry, it made it official – congrats, you’re a dad. That was 13 years ago. “It was a point of pride,” he said. “This is my child, no one can take that from me.” There are many benefits to establishing paternity and including both the mother’s and father’s names on a child’s birth certificate. It’s not only necessary before seeking child support or defining custody and visitation. But it’s also the first step in fortifying the parent-child relationship, receiving equal parenting rights and giving the child added securities. “The biggest benefit is letting that child know where they come from,” said Ashombia Hawkins, manager of paternity and child support for the county’s Office of Child Support Services. But the advantages only grow from there, she said. Having legally defined parents: Is a starting point for learning a family’s medical historyExpands the child’s extended familyAllows the child to receive social security and other benefits, following a parent’s deathCan prevent a youth from entering the foster system, if they can be placed with their father or father’s family, instead The state also keeps a paternity registry and can notify dads, or those who believe they’ve fathered a child, if the child is placed for adoption. Paternity can be established any time before the child turns 23. The biggest benefit for Stanberry, though, was getting to help raise his daughter. When he exited prison, he became a stay-at-home dad. His daughter was six months old at the time, he said, so he taught her how to walk, potty train and say her ABCs. “You get to be there,” he said. Studies have repeatedly shown that children with involved fathers have better outcomes. They’re healthier, perform better in school, and are less likely to touch the criminal justice system. Other Cuyahoga County dads are stepping up, too. There were 63,764 children born out of wedlock in Cuyahoga County this year, through May 31, Hawkins said. Paternity has been established for 92% of those children, she said. In most of those cases, parents agreed on paternity and signed a free affidavit identifying the biological father. That is either done at the hospital, if both parents are present and agree on who the biological father is, or it can be turned in later to the county’s health department or child support enforcement agency services office. Parents can also seek free genetic testing through the Office of Child Support Services. Or paternity can be ordered through juvenile court or domestic relationships court, but that is a shrinking number of cases. Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court data shows that where judges were asked to oversee 654 cases establishing parenthood in 2019, numbers dropped to 514 in 2022, the latest year available. The process can take six to eight weeks to finalize, if there isn’t court involvement. But dads can seek help from the child services office or other father-centric programs, like the Passages Family Resiliency Program and Fatherhood Initiative. A number of other county resources exist to help prepare dads for the role, strengthen their relationships with their children or support them with seeking visitation, employment or recreational activities. The Healthy Fathering Collaborative of Greater Cleveland has also compiled a list of resources “Just for dads.” “Dads should not be intimidated,” Hawkins said. “We want to empower our fathers to be included in this process.” Because Stanberry had already established paternity, it is now empowering him to fight for equal access to his children. When his relationship with his daughter’s mother fell apart and he later married another woman and had two sons, he said he started being denied visitation. “I would only get to talk to my daughter when she was in trouble or her mom couldn’t control her,” Stanberry said. He realized recently that he could take the issue to court and demand to have a relationship with his daughter, as an equal parent. He’s not a so-called “deadbeat dad,” Stanberry said, he wants shared custody. “There are fathers out here who are fighting,” he said. “A woman is not solely responsible for that child…be there.”