GA Code § 19-11-3 (2021)
2021 Georgia Code|Title 19 - Domestic Relations|Chapter 11 - Enforcement of Duty of Support|Article 1 - Child Support Recovery Act|§ 19-11-3. Definitions

 As used in this article, the term:    "Account" means a demand deposit account, checking or negotiable order of withdrawal account, savings account, time deposit account, or a money market mutual fund account.   "Child support enforcement agency" means the entity within the department and its contractors that are authorized to enforce a duty of support.   "Court order for child support" means any order for child support issued by a court or administrative or quasi-judicial entity of this state or another state, including an order in a criminal proceeding which results in the payment of child support as a condition of probation or otherwise. Such order shall be deemed to be a IV-D order for purposes of this article when either party to the order submits a copy of the order for support and a signed application to the department for IV-D services, when the right to child support has been assigned to the department pursuant to subsection (a) of Code Section 19-11-6, or upon registration of a foreign order pursuant to Article 3 of this chapter.   "Department" means the Department of Human Services.   "Dependent child" means any individual under the age of 18 who is not otherwise emancipated, self-supporting, married, or a member of the armed forces of the United States.   "Duty of support" means any duty of support imposed or imposable by law or by court order, decree, or judgment.   "Financial institution" means every federal or state chartered commercial or savings bank, including savings and loan associations and cooperative banks, federal or state chartered credit unions, benefit associations, insurance companies, safe-deposit companies, trust companies, and any money market mutual fund.   "IV-D" means Title IV-D of the federal Social Security Act.   "Medical insurance obligee" means any person to whom a duty of medical support is owed.   "Medical insurance obligor" means any person owing a duty of medical support.   "Money market mutual fund" means every regulated investment company within the meaning of Section 851(a) of the Internal Revenue Code which seeks to maintain a constant net asset value of $1.00 in accordance with 17 C.F.R. Section 270.2A-7.   "Obligee" means the individual to whom the payment of a support obligation is owed.   "Obligor" means the individual owing a duty of support.   "Parent" means the natural or adoptive parents of a child and includes the father of a child born out of wedlock if his paternity has been established in a judicial proceeding or if he has acknowledged paternity under oath either in open court, in an administrative hearing, or by verified writing.   "TANF" means temporary assistance for needy families.    (Ga. L. 1973, p. 192, § 3; Ga. L. 1976, p. 1537, §§ 1, 2; Ga. L. 1997, p. 1613, § 23; Ga. L. 2003, p. 415, § 1; Ga. L. 2009, p. 453, § 2-2/HB 228; Ga. L. 2010, p. 245, § 1/HB 1118; Ga. L. 2014, p. 457, § 10/SB 282; Ga. L. 2017, p. 646, § 1-16/SB 137.)    The 2017 amendment,  effective July 1, 2017, added paragraph (2); redesignated former paragraphs (2) through (4) as present paragraphs (3) through (5), respectively; substituted "individual" for "person" in paragraph (5); redesignated former paragraphs (5) through (7) as present paragraphs (6) through (8), respectively; deleted former paragraph (8), which read: "'IV-D agency' means the Child Support Enforcement Agency of the Department of Human Services and its contractors."; added paragraphs (12) and (13); and redesignated former paragraphs (12) and (13) as present paragraphs (14) and (15), respectively.   Law reviews.   - For article commenting on the 1997 amendment of this Code section, see 14 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 121 (1997).   JUDICIAL DECISIONS   "Parent."    - Divorce decree, and the decree's finding that the parties had no children, a finding which was apparently incorporated into the decree simply because it was a provision of the parties' agreement, was not a judicial proceeding establishing paternity within the meaning of "parent" in the Child Support Recovery Act, O.C.G.A. § 19-11-1 et seq. Department of Human Resources v. Fleeman, 263 Ga. 756, 439 S.E.2d 474 (1994).    Grandmother was not a "parent" of the child within the meaning of O.C.G.A. § 19-8-1(8) or O.C.G.A. § 19-11-3. Stills v. Johnson, 272 Ga. 645, 533 S.E.2d 695 (2000).   Adopting parent on equal footing as biological.    - Georgia law specifically provides that a decree of adoption creates the relationship of parent and child between each petitioner and the adopted individual as if the adopted individual were a child of biological issue of that petitioner. Hastings v. Hastings, 291 Ga. 782, 732 S.E.2d 272 (2012).    Cited in Young v. Department of Human Resources, 148 Ga. App. 518, 251 S.E.2d 578 (1978); Burns v. Swinney, 252 Ga. 461, 314 S.E.2d 440 (1984); Sutter v. Turner, 172 Ga. App. 777, 325 S.E.2d 384 (1984).   RESEARCH REFERENCES   Am. Jur. 2d.   - 59 Am. Jur. 2d, Parent and Child, § 2.