She estimates that over an eight-month period, paternity rate disclosures rose from less than 10 percent to about 25 percent in the four programs in Maricopa County and Yuma she worked with. Taxpayers are likely to demand that greater efforts be made to establish paternity as the costs of families headed by young single women are passed along to them. If the parents aren't picking up the tab, then taxpayers wind up shouldering the financial burden, she said. And beyond the monetary aspects, there are emotional reasons for establishing paternity as well. These children deserve to know who their parents are,'' said Bianca Varelas, program director of the Pima County Attorney's Child Support Enforcement Unit.
Efforts are under way to help raise paternity rates.
Federal legislation recently established hospital-based programs that allow mothers to legally name a father right away and circumvent the filing fee. Locally, support enforcement workers speak to teen-age parent programs about the topic. Wise said the more educational programs, the better.