In re A.P. CA4/2

I.

INTRODUCTION

Defendant and appellant, A.V. (Mother) appeals from the juvenile court’s order 1 terminating parental rights as to her five-year-old daughter A.P. (Welf. & Inst. Code,

§ 366.26). Mother contends that the juvenile court and plaintiff and respondent, the

Riverside County Department of Public Social Services (DPSS), failed to comply with 2 the duty of inquiry under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) (25 U.S.C. § 3 1901 et seq.) and related state law. For the reasons set forth post, we conditionally

reverse and remand this matter to the juvenile court.

II.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. General Background

Mother has a prior history with child protective services involving two of her other

children due to issues with general neglect, homelessness, substance abuse, and domestic

violence in the home. Prior to this case, Mother received reunification services from May

2017 to June 2018 as to her two older children. Mother failed to reunify with the children

1 All future statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code. 2 “[B]ecause ICWA uses the term ‘Indian,’ we do the same for consistency, even though we recognize that other…