In re Dezi C.

Opinion of the Court by Evans, J.

In 1978, Congress enacted the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA; 25 U.S.C. § 1901 et seq.) to “formalize[] federal policy relating to the placement of Indian children outside the family home.” (In re W.B. (2012) 55 Cal.4th 30, 40 (W.B.).) Under ICWA’s state analogue, the California Indian Child Welfare Act (Cal-ICWA), courts and child welfare agencies are charged with “an affirmative and continuing duty to inquire whether a child . . . is or may be an Indian child” in dependency cases. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 224.2, subd. (a).) Child welfare agencies discharge this state law duty by “asking the child, parents, legal guardian, Indian custodian, extended family members, others who have an interest in the child, and the party reporting child abuse or neglect, whether the child is, or may be, an Indian child and where the child, the parents, or Indian custodian is domiciled.”1 (Id., subd. (b).) We are tasked with determining whether a child welfare agency’s failure to make the statutorily required initial inquiry under California’s heightened ICWA requirements constitutes reversible error. California courts have reached differing

1 The language of both…