767.521.Action by state for child support.
Subch. VI: Support and Maintenance · Last amended 2007 · Current through 2025 Wisconsin Act 247 · Last verified September 8, 2026
Full Text of Section 767.521
Amendment History
Wisconsin prints each section’s legislative history as a single “History” line naming every act that created or amended it, and every renumbering. It is reproduced verbatim below.
History: 1987 a. 27; 1995 a. 289, 404; 1997 a. 27, 105; 2005 a. 443 s. 38; Stats. 2005 s. 767.521; 2007 a. 20.
Plain-English Summary
A short, mandatory section. Where a child's right to support has been assigned to the state under one of the public assistance provisions it lists, the state or its delegate shall bring an action for support, or for paternity determination and support, if both of the following are true: the child has been deprived of parental support because a parent is continuously absent from the home, and no court has yet ordered that absent parent to support the child.
The design is straightforward. Public money is standing in for a parent's support, and the state does not wait for a caretaker to bring the case. The conditions are cumulative — both must apply — so where an order already exists, the remedy is enforcement or revision rather than a fresh action.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does Wisconsin bring a child support case itself?
Where the child's right to support has been assigned to the state under one of the listed assistance provisions, the child has been deprived of parental support by a parent's continued absence from the home, and no court has ordered that parent to pay.
What if there is already a support order?
Then this section does not apply — both of its conditions must be met, and one of them is that no order has been issued. Enforcement or revision is the route instead.