In re Nickolas T.

B.T. appeals a dispositional order denying her request for custody of her son, Nickolas T., who was living with his maternal aunt pursuant to a guardianship order from a Mississippi dependency court. B.T. contends the court erred when it did not consider her request for placement under Welfare and Institutions Code section 361.2, which requires the court to place the child with the noncustodial parent unless it finds that placement would be detrimental to the child, and instead shifted the burden of proof to the parent to show that such placement was in the child’s best interests. B.T. asserts this error despite agreeing to a best interests standard and objecting to a finding of detriment at trial.

We conclude that the court erred when it acquiesced to the parties’ theory that because a permanency plan of guardianship had been selected for Nickolas in 2006 through Mississippi dependency proceedings, his new California dependency case was also at the postpermanency stage. Instead, we conclude that once the State of Mississippi declined jurisdiction and the juvenile court found that the child was described by section 300, the court should have proceeded under section 361,…