In re T.J. CA3

BACKGROUND

Because the issues on appeal are limited to compliance with the ICWA, we dispense with a detailed recitation of the underlying facts and procedural history. Prior Family Maintenance Proceedings In early 2023, the minor was in an open family maintenance case in the home of his mother, A.P. (mother). Father was incarcerated. According to the disposition report from those prior proceedings, mother informed the Department she had no known Indian ancestry. The social worker had been unable to obtain information from father but paternal grandfather and paternal stepgrandmother both stated there was no known Indian heritage on father’s side of the family. On January 26, 2023, the juvenile court found there was no reason to believe the minor was an Indian child and therefore the ICWA did not apply. The juvenile court exercised dependency jurisdiction over the minor in February 2023. Mother and maternal grandmother were present at the disposition hearing on March 23, 2023, and the continued disposition hearing on April 13, 2023. Father was not present. The juvenile court reiterated its previous ICWA findings and ordered that the minor remain in mother’s custody with family…