Recognition of Parentage (ROP)
A form that unmarried parents sign, usually at the hospital after a baby is born, to legally establish who the child's father is without going to court.
A Recognition of Parentage (ROP) is a legal form that unmarried parents can sign to establish paternity (legal fatherhood) without going to court. In Minnesota, hospital staff typically offer this form to unmarried parents shortly after a baby is born. Both the mother and the father must sign the form, and their signatures must be notarized or witnessed by two people.
Signing an ROP has serious legal consequences. Once the form is filed with the Minnesota Department of Health, it has the same legal effect as a court order establishing paternity. The father’s name is added to the child’s birth certificate, and the father gains both legal rights and responsibilities. These include the right to seek custody or parenting time, and the responsibility to pay child support.
Minnesota law gives parents a 60-day window to change their minds. Either parent can revoke (cancel) the ROP within 60 days of signing it by filing a revocation with the Department of Health. After 60 days, the ROP can only be challenged in court, and only for very limited reasons such as fraud, duress, or a mistake about who the biological father is.
Why it matters: An ROP is the simplest way for unmarried parents to legally establish paternity in Minnesota. It protects the child’s right to support from both parents and gives the father legal standing to be involved in the child’s life. Understanding the 60-day revocation period is important because after that window closes, the ROP is very difficult to undo.
Example: An unmarried couple has a baby at a Minnesota hospital. A staff member explains the ROP form and both parents sign it. The father’s name is added to the birth certificate. Three years later, the parents separate, and the father uses the ROP as the legal basis to petition the court for parenting time.
Birth of a child to unmarried parents, hospital paperwork, paternity establishment