In re D.W. CA1/2

DISCUSSION

“ICWA establishes minimum standards for state courts to follow before removing Indian children from their families and placing them in foster care or adoptive homes and does not prohibit states from establishing higher standards.” (In re Dezi C. (2024) 16 Cal.5th 1112, 1129 (Dezi C.); see

U.S.C. § 1921.)

“Under ICWA’s state analogue [(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. [Citation.] 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.’ ” (Dezi C., supra, 16 Cal.5th at p. 1125, quoting § 224.2, subds. (a) and (b), italics added.) “The juvenile court is required to make findings as to the applicability of the ICWA.” (H.A. v. Superior Court (2024) 101 Cal.App.5th 956, 965.) “It should undertake a meaningful ICWA analysis on…