Paternity Establishment

When a child is born out of wedlock (not during a legal marriage), the CSEA is required to establish paternity to legally determine the father of a child. Following State laws, paternity establishment can be determined through the State of Ohio Affidavit of Paternity, State-determined "presumptions" of paternity and genetic testing.

The Agency provides genetic testing services. Because not all cases are eligible for genetic testing, it is important that individuals first contact the Child Support Enforcement Agency to apply for establishment services for a paternity case. A copy of a child's birth certificate is required by the Agency to correctly determine if genetic testing is appropriate. In addition, the Agency provides genetic testing for those individuals who are court-ordered to have testing completed.

Support Establishment

Once paternity is established the Columbiana County CSEA can establish child support and medical support orders through administrative and judicial (Court) processes.  

 The establishment of a support order involves the determination of a monthly child support amount, or obligation, to be paid by the non-custodial parent (the parent with whom the child does not reside.) The child support obligation is calculated by using the Ohio Child Support Guidelines as established by the Ohio Legislature. The Guidelines take into consideration the incomes of both parents, the number of children, day care expenses and health insurance premium costs for the children in the case. To review the Ohio Child Support Guidelines, you can connect to the Ohio Revised Code (Section 31) at http://codes.ohio.gov/orc.

State laws also require that a medical support order be established in conjunction with a child support order. A medical support order requires one or both of the parties to provide health insurance for the child/children and may require a monthly medical support payment when insurance is not available. The medical support order also addresses the sharing of non-insured expenses for the child/children.