The Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott wants to offer assistance to part-time fathers or weekend dads through his office’s Fatherhood Program. The program aims to provide help to dads who want to become more emotionally and/or financially involved in the lives’ of their children.
The Office of the Attorney General’s Child Support Division helps fathers with child support, establishing paternity, job training, employment referrals, and education about their rights, responsibilities, building better relationships with their children and their mother.
The Child Support Division is also taking the time this week to say Happy Father’s Day and thank Texas dads for providing their children with the love and support they so desperately need from their fathers.
The security that children feel from knowing their father’s will provide for them is immeasurable. Last year, the state collected a total of more than $3 billion in child support payments, mostly from fathers.
The state has several other programs to assist new dads. For example, the Paternity Opportunity Program allows unmarried fathers to acknowledge their children at the time of birth. The OAG has trained and certified hospital staff to help new, unmarried partners with the Acknowledgement of Paternity process so dads will have legal rights from the start. The OAG also has information and handbooks to help dad know what to expect when their partners are expecting.
The Parenting and Paternity Awareness program is an educational curriculum aimed at high school students to teach them about the legalities, challenges and rewards of being a parent, along with the responsibilities of paternity and child support,
Source: texasinsider.org, “Happy Father’s Day!” Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, June 13, 2012
