Opening a Child Support Case
The role of the Placer County Department of Child Support Services is to, if necessary, establish paternity and obtain and/or enforce child support and medical support orders.The Department provides services at no cost to parents, guardians and caretakers of minor children. Our services are available regardless of marital status or income.
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If you have an existing order for child support, you will need to provide us with the following:
- A copy of the original order and all modifications done after the original order was established.
- A copy of your payment history
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There are two types of cases:
Non-public Assistance
We will open a case when you complete and return an application for services.
Public Assistance cases
When a child receives public assistance, the Health and Human Services Department refers the case to Child Support Services. To be eligible to receive public assistance for a child, parents must cooperate with Child Support Services. When a child is removed from the home, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, and placed in foster case, a child support case may be opened and one or both parents may be required to pay child support to help in the cost of foster care. When a minor child is receiving Medi-Cal only, a case is opened to establish paternity and medical support. A child support order will be established if requested by the parent.
What you can expect once your case is opened
Once your case is opened, we will follow up on the information you have given us. The Department will send you a letter with your case information after opening the case.
Locate the other parent
If you don’t know the other parent’s address, we will try to obtain it. Any information you can give us—like current or past jobs, addresses, and earnings—will help us find the other parent.
Note: All cases are confidential. Any information provided and/or obtained by this department will not be disclosed with the exception of documents filed with the courts.
Establish paternity
The local child support agency can help you establish paternity with a Paternity Opportunity Program (POP) Declaration or a court order. The Declaration is a form you can fill out that must be signed by both parents to establish paternity without going to court. The Department will help you arrange for testing when the child’s father is in question.
Obtain a child support order
Legal action will be taken to get child support from the obligor parent. The amount of child support is determined by the income of each parent and the amount of the time each parent spends with the child, among other issues.
Enforce the child support order
The Department has a number of ways to collect child support for children. The most common way is by withholding part of the obligor parent’s wages from his or her paycheck.
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