My question involves child support in the State of: California

Hello,

(Background, if you care to skip it)
I have a 2-week old daughter. Her dad and I were together through the majority of the pregnancy (and 3 years prior). 6 weeks before I was to give birth via scheduled c-section, he ended the relationship because he decided that he did not want an "instant family", as he calls it, and that he had been on the fence about it the whole time (swell that he waited so long to let me know). I have not seen him in almost 2 months, and he barely speaks to me. He will completely ignore me if I attempt to contact him. I have pretty much given up attempting contact at this point, because it just makes me sad and frustrated.

He did not attend our daughter's birth; I begged him to come, especially because it was a scheduled c-section so the date and time were both known well in advance. He would not. He is not denying that he is her father, and he never has. He is "willing", in the loosest sense of the word (since he knows he can't get out of it), to pay child support. Since he was not there for the birth, I could not put him on the birth certificate, because we are not married and he was not there to sign a voluntary declaration of paternity. He did give me his social security number for the purpose.

We live in different counties and approximately 1 hour away from one another, but I work in the same county that he lives.

(Questions)
I know that the DCSS will help establish paternity; how does it work if he is not on the birth certificate? What is the process that the county will follow in order to establish paternity? I assume it depends on how cooperative he is, which is up in the air at this point, because he has been quite unpredicable. Will the county force a DNA test, or would they accept him admitting to being the father, if he does? Will he be forced to come to my county, or will everything be done via telephone and postal mail and in his county?

How much interaction or correspondence will he actually have to have with the county? I am positive that he will procrastinate and prolong things because he doesn't want to deal with it (ie., ignoring phone calls, not sending in paperwork in a timely manner, and especially if he has to drive to where I live).

More than anything, I am trying to find out timeframes. It seems like it can vary greatly, and again, depends on his cooperation, even though I am able to completely fill out all of the paperwork; I am afraid that him not being on the birth certificate is really going to drag things out. He makes approximately $5500/month, and I make approximately $2300/month. I am on short-term disability for 8 weeks, followed by baby bonding time for 6 weeks, then 3 weeks of saved vacation time, and will not be going back to work until July. Money is extremely tight because the state is backlogged and I have not received anything from disability yet, though I have been off work since April 11th (5 days prior to giving birth).

I filed for support (online) on April 18th, 2 days after our daughter was born. I saw on the DCSS website that we should be receiving written correspondence from the state within 20 days; what should I be expecting from them? Just notification of the case being opened?

Am I able to ask that he pay part of child care expenses when I go back to work, or would that be something that is included in the child support order? When it comes to taxes, if he has no custody or visitation (I am not opposed to him seeing her, and actually really want him to be in her life, but I don't know that he wants to), but is paying child support, who claims the child as a dependent?

I apologize for all the questions - and length! - hopefully someone can help in full or part.