A Nebraska father who has been struggling to get a Social Security number and a valid birth certificate for his toddler finally got a reprieve Wednesday.
Jason Kilburn’s 2-year-old, Caroline, has been listed in state records as “Unakite Thirteen Hotel” since she was born. In addition to not having a birth certificate with her real name on it, Caroline was never assigned a Social Security number — leaving her ineligible for Medicaid, day care and other services because they all require a Social Security number to verify her identity, her dad says.
On Tuesday, a day after NBC News reported on his bizarre dilemma and was told by the Social Security Administration that it would contact Kilburn, the father received a call inviting him to come to the Social Security Administration’s Omaha field office, said Kilburn’s attorney, Joshua Livingston, who works at the Koenig | Dunne law firm in Omaha.
The meeting, which took place Wednesday morning, went well: Kilburn left with a Social Security number for Caroline at last. A representative told Kilburn to expect to receive a Social Security card for her in the coming weeks.
“I am just so relieved that we finally have this part of the puzzle in place,” Kilburn, who lives in Valley, Nebraska, said in an email. “I am absolutely overwhelmed by the outpouring of support for myself and Caroline and grateful for the support of each governmental agency that reached out to assist in finally resolving this part of the problem.”
The positive development, reported first by NBC News, is only a partial solution. The Social Security number was issued Wednesday under the name Unakite since the girl is not listed in any state records under the name her father calls her, Caroline Elizabeth Kilburn.
But Livingston said it’s a start. He plans to continue to help Kilburn to get a proper birth certificate for Caroline, which will be much easier now that she has a Social Security number.
“Getting it under ‘Unakite’ is obviously not the most desirable way to go about it, but having that number under any name at this point is such a victory,” he said. “There’s mechanisms in place to change names.”
Caroline’s unusual saga began when she was born in November 2022 in a house just over the Nebraska border in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to a mother who immediately wanted to place her with another family, Kilburn said, adding that Nebraska foster parents took her in.
Kilburn and Caroline’s mother had dated on and off but were not together at the time of Caroline’s birth, and he did not know if it was his baby, he said.
After a DNA test proved he was Caroline’s father, the juvenile court last year relinquished custody from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees foster care, to Kilburn. Court documents show that Caroline’s birth mother’s custody rights were terminated, and attempts by NBC News to reach her this week were unsuccessful.
Once Caroline was in his custody, Kilburn learned that she did not have a usable birth certificate or a Social Security number due to a bureaucratic blunder, though it’s not clear which agency made the mistake.
In the time between Caroline’s birth in Iowa and her court-ordered emergency transfer to her Nebraska foster family, she had received only a certificate of live birth — an unofficial document that hospitals submit to start the process of creating government-issued birth certificates.
“It’s like she’s a ghost,” Kilburn said in a phone interview earlier this week. “It’s been very, very taxing.”
Adding to the confusion was the name on her certificate of live birth: Unakite Thirteen Hotel, which Kilburn says he was told was computer-generated by the Iowa hospital where Caroline was taken after her home birth.
Previous attempts to resolve the issue did not pan out. In March 2023, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services filed a motion in juvenile court seeking an order “allowing NDHHS to establish a legal name for the above-named minor child as Unakite Thirteen Hotel” so it could temporarily use her incorrect name to get a birth certificate and a Social Security number.
The court granted the motion, and Livingston said the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services received a birth certificate that said “for government use only” that listed Unakite Hotel as the child’s name. But he said the state agency never followed through with getting her a valid Social Security number. Livingston filed a motion in December 2024 seeking to reopen the matter, which the court denied.
In an email to NBC News earlier this week, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services said information about children in state custody is confidential but that it was working “with the child’s father’s attorney to resolve this issue.”
Not having proper identification for Caroline put her and Kilburn in a tough position. He’s not working due to a heart problem and was denied Medicaid and other services for Caroline because he could not provide a Social Security number for her. A checkup for Caroline at the pediatrician’s office recently cost Kilburn about $700, he said, deterring him from returning to the doctor.
“Three or four weeks ago, she was sick. She had a fever and she was throwing up, and I had to weigh my options about what I was going to do,” he said Monday. “It really sucks to sit here and watch her suffer when there’s health care out there that I can’t get because of this.”
He also hasn’t been able to sign Caroline up for day care, speech therapy or early intervention services that he believes she qualifies for.
“This is stuff she’s entitled to as any American is,” he said.
He was happy to obtain Caroline’s Social Security number after such a long battle.
“We still have some work ahead of us, but the recent progress is huge and makes future efforts a realistic goal we feel we can achieve moving forward,” he said Wednesday.
