CHILDREN AND THE LAW
...Dependency Petitions
......Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)
.........Heritage Inquiry
............Insufficient Inquiry Made
 12 Cards On This Topic:
  • Under ICWA, agency had an affirmative duty to interview Cs' paternal great-grandmother once Father alerted agency that she might have information regarding family's Indian heritage.
  • Order terminating parental rights conditionally reversed where social services agency knew child may have Cherokee heritage but did not notify tribe, and where agency failed to fully investigate child's paternal lineal ancestry.
  • Order terminating parental rights reversed where agency did not provide complete and accurate ICWA notice of personal identifying information about direct lineal ancestors of child, specifically great-great-grandfather.
  • Where social services agency did not interview extended family members, including Cs' paternal grandfather and great-grandmother, as part of ICWA heritage inquiry, remand was necessary.
  • Child protective agency is not relieved of ICWA inquiry duty where child's parent or other family member informs it of C's potential Indian ancestry but does not name a federally recognized tribe or fails to name a tribe.
  • Mother not asked to complete form JV-130, and juvenile court failed to make required inquiry as to possible Indian heritage on record; error harmless where mother never asserted C may have American Indian.
  • Even if F does not provide more info regarding his possible Indian ancestry, the applicability of ICWA must be revisited on remand where DCFS and court made no effort to find info to support F's belief in his ancestry.
  • Failure to inquire as to mother's Indian heritage harmless error where HHSA allowed to augment record with document mother filed in unrelated dependency case in which she denied any Indian heritage.
  • Remand required to inquire of mother as to whether C might be Indian child per ICWA.
  • Failure to comply with ICWA renders juvenile court dependency proceeding void; tribe’s determination of ICWA applicability, and not trial court’s, is conclusive.
  • Even if juvenile court and SSA failed in inquiry responsibilities, F failed to demonstrate prejudice where there was absolutely no suggestion by him that he in fact had any Indian heritage.
  • Cases where insufficient inquiry into Indian heritage was made.


    •