Who is a Putative Father? A putative father is a man whose legal relationship to a child has not been established, but claims to be the father or who is alleged to be the father of a child who is born to a woman to whom he is not married at the time of the child’s birth.  The Federal Social Security Act requires states to have in place procedures for mothers and putative fathers to acknowledge paternity of a child, including a hospital-based program for the voluntary acknowledgment of paternity that focuses on the period immediately before or after the birth of the child. 

However, this is completely dependent on a father having the KNOWLEDGE that he has conceived a child or is the father of a child just born  and has legal standing/ cooperation from the child’s mother to establish paternity. Unmarried mothers still can claim UNKNOWN for fathers on birth certificates. If married, then legal husbands are often considered legal fathers even if not biological. 

Why are there putative father registries? Putative father registry are currently stablished by state law supposedly to “protect the parental rights of fathers” who assume responsibility for children they may have fathered and to expedite adoptions of children whose biological fathers have not assumed responsibility for their children. It is promoted that the purpose of the registry is to permit the biological father of a child to preserve his right to notice and consent in the event of an adoption.

Registering Does NOT Ensure Father’s Rights 

To ensure a father’s right to his child, technically, a man should register for every woman that he is not married to to cover the length of time that they could conceive a child;  however being listed on the Putative Father’s Registry does NOT mean that a man will be recognized as the legal father. In many states a man is not recognized as having paternal rights unless he has also supported the mother and child during the pregnancy and often a father must PROVE that support if he is not married to the mother of the child to be adopted.  Registering on a Putative Father’s Registry means that the father will be notified of court proceedings.

Alleged fathers have the right to be notified of adoption proceedings involving their children. In order for the putative father to receive notice of an adoption procedure, he must register with the Putative Father Registry prior to the child’s birth or within a small state specific time period immediately after the child’s birth. A putative father who fails to file a notice of intent to claim paternity within this time frame is considered to have given an irrevocable implied consent to any adoption proceeding. The putative father is responsible for notifying the registry of a change of address. Most men have no idea that there are putative father’s registries in their state’s nor do they use them to protect their paternal rights.

To more quickly facilitate adoptions, a search of a NATIONAL Putative Father Registry would be conducted and if no putative father is found to have registered, the adoption process may proceed.