In re D.A. CA4/2

I. BACKGROUND

In February 2023, plaintiff and respondent San Bernardino County Children and

Family Services (CFS) filed a dependency petition for D.A. The petition alleged both

parents had criminal and substance abuse histories and the whereabouts of both parents

were unknown. D.A., born just days earlier, had remained in the hospital, and CFS

obtained a detention warrant. At the initial hearing, which both parents attended, the

juvenile court ordered D.A. removed from the parents. The following month, the

juvenile court declared D.A. a dependent of the court, and in April 2024 it terminated

both parents’ parental rights to D.A. In doing so, the court found that ICWA did not

apply.

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code, and undesignated rule references are to the California Rules of Court. Additionally, “[t]he language of both federal and state law uses the term ‘Indian,’” but “California courts have used alternative terms, such as ‘American Indian’ or ‘Native American’; we use the term ‘Indian’ throughout to reflect the statutory language.” (In re Dezi C. (2024) 16 Cal.5th 1112, 1125, fn. 1 (Dezi C.).)

2 A. Father’s ICWA…