Absentee fathers program in peril

Lindsay Schwab has been known to call employers or relatives or -- more and more these days -- check Facebook to find elusive potential fathers and call them in for paternity testing.

"The Internet has been huge in helping us to find people," said Schwab, one of about 20 Hennepin County workers dedicated to locating fathers.

Thanks in part to federal financial incentives, Minnesota counties now identify nearly all fathers of children born out of wedlock, a remarkable change. But county and state officials worry the progress may be at an end because a key source of federal funding went away Oct. 1.

The rate of establishing paternity shot up from 82 percent of children born out of wedlock in 2002 to 99 percent last year. On Friday, Hennepin County reported its highest rate ever, 98 percent, for the 12 months ended Sept. 30.

The progress has yielded numerous payoffs, including an increase in parental child support payments and reduced demand for welfare benefits.

Statewide, child support distributions rose from $537 million in 2002 to $598 million in 2009.

"We've got a good program going," said Barry Bloomgren, area manager of Hennepin County Child Support. "Now, should we lose any components of the program due to a loss of funding, there would ultimately be less performance, less dollars for families."

Without that, he said, the loss of funding to the county would equal 65 salaries, lost for good, or made up only through other cuts or increased dollars from the financially strapped county or state.

The reward funding has been at issue since it was targeted in the federal debt reduction act of 2005. Lawmakers later restored the funding through the federal economic stimulus package, but only for 2009 and 2010.

County and state child support leaders said stable funding is one reason for the recent improvement in Minnesota's paternity-identification rate. Bloomgren also credited the positive atmosphere in the Hennepin office, which among other things helps fathers with job training and job search services so they can get work and pay adequate child support. The office also has been responsive during the recession, warning fathers who lost jobs to go to court to adjust child support orders before they fall hopelessly behind, he said.

On the hunt for dads

Schwab said she and her co-workers have learned to be persistent when locating fathers. Once in a while, Schwab will announce herself on the phone only to hear back, "Oh, it's a bad connection. Click."

Not all fathers are elusive, she said. Some don't know they are fathers, and are overjoyed at the news.

"I really feel like I am helping people, the dads and the moms," she said. "I feel like, sometimes, if I wasn't there to facilitate things, the child would be left without support and without a legal dad. I feel like, sometimes, I really am able to bring people together."

Minnesota's paternity-identification rate was 16th highest in the nation in 2009. Within the state, Hennepin's was one of the lowest and Ramsey County's rate -- 87 percent -- was the worst.

The county is challenged by its high rate of births to unwed mothers, said Mark Ponsolle, an assistant Ramsey County attorney. "If you've got more unwed births, you've got more work to do."

The identification rate compares the number of children born out of wedlock in a given year with the number of children for whom paternity was established in that same year. While most paternity cases involve infants, some involve children in grade school or even high school -- often when informal child support arrangements have fallen apart or confusion has emerged over who actually is a child's biological father.

Without restoring the federal reward funding -- or replacing it with state and county funds -- paternity rates might drop and an estimated 13,811 children will lack support next year. Enrollment in state welfare programs would rise, said Deborah Huskins, Hennepin County's area director of human services and public health.

"The less we are able to follow through on child-support responsibilities, the less money is coming into the families that have the children," she said. "These families are often just a step away from poverty."

Ponsolle said there are more reasons than child support to establish paternity; children gain better medical histories and certain inheritance rights.

"It's just good," he said, "for children to know who their father is."