E.B.

I. BACKGROUND

In July 2023, E.B. apparently filed a petition to determine parental relationship using Judicial Council form FL-200, naming V.L. as the respondent.1 The Department

1 The limited record E.B. designated on appeal does not include the petition. But, in its statement of decision, the trial court quoted text from the petition indicating that E.B. used the Judicial Council form alerting him to the possibility that “ ‘[t]he court may make orders for support of the children and issue an earnings assignment without further intervened because V.L. had assigned it her support rights to secure public assistance for the children. That December the Department moved for a judgment (1) establishing that E.B. is the parent of M. and O.; (2) requiring E.B. to pay $671 per month in child support, commencing July 26, 2023; and (3) requiring E.B. and V.L. to equally share childcare costs and uncovered medical, dental, and/or optical costs for the children. The Department submitted a declaration of paternity for one of the children and a voluntary declaration of parentage for the other, both of which identified E.B. as the father.2 In a document he captioned as an affidavit of…