As a result of federal welfare reform legislation and state law, in January 1998, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Office of Child Support, created the Central Paternity Regisry (CPR). The purpose of the registry is to collect and process all paternity documents initiated by the CSEA's, hospitals, vital statistics registrars and courts. The registry extracts specific data elements from each document. Within a few days, the information is made available to the CSEA's to allow them to move quickly to establish support. Once the registry edits the paternity documents, the originals are forwarded to the Ohio Department of Health for permanent storage.

For historical trend data on Ohio's paternity establishment, please click here.

To visit the website of Ohio's Central Paternity Registry vendor, click on www.oh-paternity.com.

For more information about child support services, click here.