In re D.O. CA5

INTRODUCTION

On September 23, 2021, when minor was six years old, his mother, S.O. (mother), took him from B.M. (father)’s home in Texas to California. There, she surrendered minor to the department, and he was placed with foster parent. Minor has remained with foster parent throughout the proceedings. On September 29, 2021, at the first hearing on minor’s case, father appeared remotely and stated to the court that both his parents (minor’s paternal grandmother and paternal grandfather) were alive but did not state their names. A family finding and engagement social worker, Juan Arredondo, was assigned to minor’s case from September 24 to November 5, 2021. Arredondo attempted to call father one time for the purpose of searching for minor’s relatives. Father did not answer, so Arredondo left a voicemail. He also mailed a family finding parent information packet to father with a family tree for him to fill out, but father did not return the completed packet to the department. Arredondo stated in the department’s reports that he located 20 maternal relatives and 18 paternal relatives and mailed 16 family finding information packets to the relatives, but he did not identify which…