The Parentage Opportunity Program offers eligible parents the opportunity to establish a legal parent-child relationship free of charge by signing and filing a Voluntary Declaration of Parentage. The Program is only one of two ways to legally establish parentage, and the program significantly decreases the time and money required to establish legal parentage through the lengthy and expensive court process. A filed Declaration has the same force and effect as a judgment for parentage issued by a court. A name on the birth certificate does not establish legal parentage.