V.M.
Los Angeles County Department of Children & Family Services v. V.M.
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Grimes, J.
*378 Opinion
SUMMARY
V.M. (mother) challenges the juvenile court’s order terminating her parental rights to now four-year-old J.M. and three-year-old B.M. Father is not a party to this appeal. Mother contends that the order must be reversed because the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (the Department) failed to comply with the notice requirements of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) 1 in that (1) the notices sent did not include the names of maternal great-great-grandparents, alleged by the maternal grandmother to have Papago Indian heritage, and (2) J.M. was not included in the notices. We disagree, finding the law does not require the inclusion of information about great-great-ancestors in ICWA notices, and any error in failing to include J.M. was harmless. We therefore affirm.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Because this appeal concerns only the sufficiency of the ICWA notices, we will provide a brief overview of the facts relating to the dependency. In May 2010, the Department received a referral that mother left J.M. and B.M. home alone at night while she worked. The children were not detained at the beginning of the Department’s…